Pointers' men and women beat La Crosse The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men's basketball team improved its record to 6-5 in the WIAC and 13-5 overall with an 80-61 victory Wednesday, Jan. 31, over UW-La Crosse. The Pointers led 23-13 but La Crosse came back with a 16-4 run to take a 28-27 lead before the Pointers outscored La Crosse 8-2 to take a 35-30 lead at halftime. In the second half, La Crosse came no closer than six points. Josh Iserloth scored 18 of his 23 points in second half on six-for-seven shooting from the field, including three-for-three on three-pointers to pace the Pointers. Kalonji Kadima added 20 points, while Brent Larson chipped in with 11. SPASH graduate Casey Taggatz scored 14 points for La Crosse on four-of-eight shooting from three-point range. The Pointers had lost two straight games for the first time in over two years before getting back on track by hosting Crosse. Saturday the Pointers host UW-Platteville at 7 p.m. on alumni night. The game will be preceded by the annual alumni game. Women's Basketball The Pointers defeated La Crosse, 86-70, Wednesday for their fourth straight victory. UW-SP is now 7-4 in the WIAC and 15-4 overall. The Pointers jumped out to a 39-26 halftime lead, but La Crosse cut that to 54-42 with 11:45 left. The Pointers then held La Crosse without a point for the next 5:11 while posting a 14-0 run and led by as many as 30 points at 83-53 with 3:24 left. Kari Groshek scored 16 of her 27 points in the first half while tying a career high set earlier this season vs. Wisconsin Lutheran. Carry Boehning added 15 and Tara Schmitt had 10. The Pointers take to the road for a game against UW-Platteville on Saturday. The Pointers beat UW-Platteville in their previous meeting this year. Men's Hockey The Pointers are recovering from a weekend that saw them take 108 minutes of penalties while splitting games at UW-Superior and St. Scholastica. UW-SP had 86 penalty minutes in a 6-1 loss at UW-Superior and 22 more minutes in Saturday's 4-1 win over St. Scholastica. The Pointers are now 14-7 overall and 6-4 in the NCHA. UW-SP enters this weekend in a three-way tie for third place in the NCHA and plays its final four games of the season against the other two third-place teams. The Pointers play at UW-Stout Friday and at UW-River Falls Saturday before returning home Feb. 9-10 to play both teams again. Two players recorded their 100th career points during the weekend as Ryan Maxson (Bloomington, Minn.) reached the milestone against Lake Forest and Mikhail Salienko (Riga, Latvia) accomplished the feat against St. Scholastica. Friday's game at Superior resulted in 173 combined penalty minutes by the two teams and resulted in five power play goals for the Yellowjackets. On Saturday, the Pointers held St. Scholastica to one-for-10 on the power play in the victory. UW-SP also scored shorthanded goals 21 seconds apart on the same penalty with goals by Maxson and David Boehm (Eau Claire). Women's Hockey UW-SP had its five-game winning streak snapped Friday at St. Thomas in a 4-3 overtime loss and then dropped the second game of the series to the Tommies, 4-2, on Saturday. The Pointers look to regroup this week with a pair of NCHA games at UW-Eau Claire, which is winless in the league at 0-10. UW-Stevens Point led St. Thomas 2-0 entering the third period of Friday's game, but after three straight goals by the Tommies, Mandy Rhyner (Stevens Point) scored with the Pointers' goalie pulled to send the game into overtime. The Tommies scored 1:17 into overtime to hand the Pointers their third overtime loss among seven losses this season. The Pointers fell behind 4-0 on Saturday, but outshot St. Thomas 17-4 in the third period and rallied with goals by Becky Humphreys (Roseville, Minn.) and Jessica Barrick (Mosinee). Humphreys also assisted on all three goals in Friday's loss. UW-SP is now 10-7-1 overall and 7-2-1 in the NCHA. Swimming and Diving The Pointers completed another undefeated WIAC dual meet season by sweeping men's and women's victories from UW-La Crosse and UW-River Falls over the weekend. The men's team beat UW-La Crosse, 147-95, and UW-River Falls, 120-28, while the women beat UW-La Crosse, 127-116, and UW-River Falls, 153-65. This week, UW-SP has its final tune-up for the WIAC championships on Feb. 15-17 by taking on Division I UW-Green Bay in a dual meet on Sunday. Both Pointer teams are 6-0 in dual meets this season. Chris Hansman (Neenah) won both diving events for the Pointer men at UW-LC, while Christine Sammons (Hastings, Minn.) was the lone double-winner for the women's team at UW-LC, winning the 200 medley and 200 breaststroke. Tim Benjamin (Forest Lake, Minn.) won the 200 freestyle and 100 freestyle for the men's team against UW-RF. Track And Field The Pointers had a successful debut in their first of four home indoor meets this season by sweeping both the men's and women's titles in last week's eight-team invitational. The women's team set two school records as Jody Butkowski (Stevens Point) had a triple jump of 37-feet, .25 inches and Leah Juno (Brillion) had a time of 2:14.25 in the 800 meters. Juno's time automatically qualified her for the NCAA Division III nationals. Jenny Todd (Schofield) won the 55 meters, 200 meters and long jump. The men's team had two individuals qualify for nationals as Jesse Drake (Rhinelander) won the 5000 meters in a national best time this season of 14:28.62. Mike Mead (Neenah) won the high jump at 6-feet, 9.75 inches after winning last year's national championship in the event. Noah Eschenbach (Rosholt) also won the weight throw and shot put. Wrestling Brady Holtz had his second near fall of the third period with four seconds left to pull out a major decision victory at 133 pounds and give the Pointer wrestling team a dramatic 25-24 victory over UW-Parkside Wednesday at Berg Gym. Holtz entered the third period trailing 3-1 and earned 10 points in the period, including the decisive near falls, to win 11-3 and earn four team points as the Pointers rallied from a 15-3 deficit for a victory over the Rangers, who are ranked 19th in the NCAA Division II. UW-SP is ranked 13th in the NCAA Division III rankings and improved to 7-5 in dual meets with the victory. The Pointers fell behind 12-0 on a pair of UW-Parkside pins before Nathan Preslaski won at 157 pounds to cut the lead to 12-3. After another UW-Parkside win, the Pointers benefited from Ranger forfeits at 174 pounds and 184 pounds to tie the match. UW-Parkside's Luke Goral earned a 9-7 overtime loss at 197 pounds over the Pointers' Yan White, who fell to 19-5 with the loss. Goral has beaten White twice this season and is now 22-2. Mitch Gehring recorded a pin in just 32 seconds at heavyweight to give the Pointers a 21-18 lead before a forfeit at 125 pounds forced Holtz's heroics in the final match. The Pointers will compete at the Luther College Invitational Saturday. The Pointers fell in a WIAC dual at 26th ranked UW-Whitewater Friday, 29-11. UW-Stevens Point was ranked 13th in last week's poll. Yan White raised his season record to 19-4 with a win on a decision. Nathan Preslaski won on a major decision. The Pointers take part in the Luther Invitational Saturday in Decorah, Iowa.