STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The No. 15 UW-Stevens Point men's basketball team held its third-straight opponent to 44 points or fewer, as the Pointers topped UW-River Falls 63-40 on Wednesday night at Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse.

Box Score | Photo Gallery

UW-Stevens Point (17-4, 11-1 WIAC) raced out to an 11-2 lead in the first six and a half minutes and never trailed in the game. The Pointers held UW-River Falls (8-12, 6-5 WIAC) to a season-low 40 points after limiting UW-Eau Claire to 40 on Saturday.

The win completes a regular-season sweep for UW-Stevens Point and the Pointers have won 20 of the last 21 meetings with the Falcons at Bennett Court.

Alex Richard (Spring Green, WI/River Valley) registered a game-high 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds, all on the offensive end. Richard was 7-for-12 from the field and scored 10 points in the first half. Joe Ritchay (Wisconsin Rapids, WI/Lincoln) added 16 points and seven rebounds, while Sean McGann (Baraboo, WI/Baraboo) came off the bench to score 12.

Jordan Lutz (Amherst, WI/Amherst) helped the Pointers to the quick start, scoring five points in 46 seconds to give UWSP a 7-0 lead in the first two and a half minutes. UW-Stevens Point held UW-River Falls off the scoreboard until a layup by Grant Erickson with 16:12 left in the first half.

UWSP led by at least seven and by as many as 14 the rest of the half and took a 34-24 lead into the break. Richard, Ritchay and Lutz combined to score 27 of the Pointers' 34 first-half points.

Ritchay came out of the locker room by scoring the first five points of the half to give UW-Stevens Point its largest lead of the game at 39-24. The Falcons scored the next four points to get within 11 but that was as close as the visitors got the rest of the game.

Up by 11, the Pointers went on a 7-0 run to pull away and led by at least 20 points for the final 11:01 of the game. The 23-point margin at the end of the game was the largest lead of the night for UWSP.

UW-Stevens Point shot 39.3 percent from the floor in the game, including 28.6 percent (6-for-21) from behind the arc. The Pointers capitalized on their trips to the free-throw line, going 13-of-14 (92.9 percent), compared to 9-for-22 (40.9 percent) for the Falcons.

UW-River Falls shot 38.5 percent from the floor and was just 1-for-9 (11.1 percent) from three-point range. Eli Rockett led the Falcons with 10 points, as the visitors had nine players score in the game.

The Pointers held a commanding 42-26 advantage on the boards and turned 18 offensive rebounds into 18 points. UWSP committed just nine turnovers in the game, giving the team seven-straight games with nine or fewer turnovers.

UW-Stevens Point plays at UW-Platteville on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. at Bo Ryan Court.