Bailey's big night breaks, ties basketball records By DON FRIDAY Special to the Gazette Brant Bailey etched his name into the NCAA Division 3, Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and UW-Stevens Point men's basketball record book here last Saturday night. The 6-7 senior from Wisconsin Dells led the Pointers to a 90-81 WIAC victory over stubborn La Crosse before a Parent's Night turnout of 1,020 fans at Quandt Fieldhouse. In the process, Bailey: – Set an NCAA 3 record by attempting 31 free throws, eclipsing the former mark of 30 held by Bob Rittgers of California-San Diego in 1988. – Established a WIAC record of 25 converted free throws, breaking the former mark of 21 set by Platteville's Larry Marshall 44 years ago in 1956. Longtime NBA star Terry Porter held the previous school record of 19 set in 1984 against West Virginia Wesleyan at the NAIA Tournament at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. – Tied the school record of 39 points in a game set by Mike Hughes against River Falls in 1968. Bailey, named WIAC player of the week for his record-shattering performance, also pulled down a career high 16 rebounds and handed out four assists. The Pointers needed all of Bailey's heroics to turn back the Eagles who faded late after battling UW-SP to a 38-38 halftime standoff. Two straight 15-foot jumpers by Joe Zuiker snapped a 65-65 deadlock with 8:55 remaining and started a surge which saw the Pointers outscore UW-L, 25-16, the rest of the way. Providing strong support for Bailey were 6-5 senior Gabe Frank, who made 7 of 10 shots, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range, with 18 points and four rebounds and 6-7 junior Zuiker who grabbed eight rebounds and poured in 12 of his 16 points in the second half. 6-5 junior Travis Kornowski came off the bench to add 11 points. The victory enabled the Pointers (7-2) to finish the pre-holiday portion of their WIAC schedule with a 3-1 record. UW-SP has two non-conference games prior to resuming conference play on Jan. 5. The Pointers will host Viterbo College of La Crosse on Friday, Dec. 17, (7 p.m., WIZD, 99.9-FM) and Edgewood College of Madison in the Sentry Holiday Classic on Wednesday, Dec. 29, at 9 p.m. Viterbo's V-Hawks are off to a 9-3 start under the tutelage of first year coach Wayne Wagner, a Marshfield native who served as an assistant coach to the Pointers' Jack Bennett the past two years. The Pointers will have to play the rest of the season without Kalonji Kadima. The talented 6-2 sophomore from Milwaukee (Rufus King) recently underwent an arthroscopic knee procedure which revealed a torn miniscus. Hockey After a reality check in the form of a 6-4 defeat at the hands of Augsburg (Minn.) College here last Friday, the Pointers got back on the winning track, ending a two-game slide with a lop-sided 14-4 rout of another college from the Gopher state, Bethel, on Saturday night. The two games attracted a combined 2,174 fans to Willett Arena. The non-conference split left UW-SP with a 10-3-0 record. Despite the loss to Augsburg, the Pointers dropped just one spot to No. 3 in this week's Division 3 national poll. Plattsburgh (N.Y.) maintained its top ranking with an 11-0-0 record. Norwich (Vt.), 6-1-0, is ranked No. 2, followed by UW-SP, St. Thomas (Minn.), 7-0-2 and Middlebury, Vt., 3-2-0. It was a different story on Saturday as the Pointers stormed to a 6-1 first period lead and continued to hammer Bethel the rest of the way. UW-SP launched an incredible 61 shots while the St. Paul school managed just 20. A dozen Pointers shared in the goal-scoring spree which tied for second highest output in school history. Maxson, a junior from Bloomington (Minn.) Jefferson who was named Pointer player of the week, led the way with a three-goal hat trick. He finished the weekend with four goals and two assists. Also scoring goals were Toninato, David Carlstrom, Mike Slobodnik, D.J. Drayna, Troy Michalski, Nathan Shasby, Pierre Nicolet, Mikhail Salienko, Nick Glander, Boehm and Randy Enders. Goalies Gould and Cineclli combined for 16 saves. The Pointers will now take a holiday break before returning to action with a non-conference home outing against nationally ranked St. Thomas on Tuesday, Jan. 4, at 7:30 p.m. Women's Basketball A three-game winning streak has the Pointers headed in the right direction following a struggling start caused in part by the injury loss for the season of standout post player Kari Groshek. After posting a WIAC home win over Superior last Wednesday, the Pointers followed up with a 79-68 road victory over La Crosse Saturday, then traveled to Appleton on Monday and whipped Lawrence University in a non-conference outing, 74-63. The winning streak enabled coach Shirley Egner's outfit to improve to 2-2 in the WIAC and 4-4 overall. After a close first half, the Pointers broke open the game against La Crosse by going on a 13-1 run which opened a 20-point advantage with 9:30 remaining. Sophomore Carry Boehning and senior Jessica Ott tossed in 21 points each to lead the balanced UW-SP attack. Also in double figures were sophomore Amie Schultz with 17 and freshman Megan Hodgson with 13. Boehning led the Pointers to a 38-34 rebounding edge by coming down with 14. Against Lawrence, UW-SP surged to a 43-28 intermission lead and withstood several rallies by the Vikings in the second half. Ott's jumper gave the Pointers a 70-63 lead with 1:16 left. Ott, who was 3 of 8 from beyond the arc, poured in 23 points and Schultz added 18 to lead the way. The Pointers had a 48-41 rebounding advantage as the 5-9 Hodgson pulled down a career high 16. Granger had five assists for UW-SP, which out-shot Lawrence, .429 to .348 and forced the Vikings into 20 turnovers. Boehning, an Auburndale native, was named Pointer player of the week for her performances in the two WIAC wins. After a 22-point, 11-rebound effort against Superior, the 6-0 forward turned in another double-double (21-14) against La Crosse. The Pointers will travel to Daytona Beach, Fla. for the Land of Magic Classic on Dec. 28 and 29. UW-SP will take on John Hopkins (Md.) on Tuesday and Clark (Mass.) on Wednesday, both at 10 a.m. Swimming Sweeping all 13 events in the men's competition and earning nine firsts in the women's portion of the dual meet, the Pointers continued their dominance in the water by routing UW-Oshkosh last weekend. The wins enabled both teams to improve to 3-0 in WIAC dual meets this season. UW-SP will compete in the annual Rainbow Classic at Honolulu, Hawaii Jan. 2-3. Nine individuals and two relays chalked up wins for the Pointer men in the 157-79 rout. Earning two first places each were Brent Newport in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.53) and 100 freestyle (:49.17) and Kevin Engholdt in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. Newport also swam a leg on the 200 medley relay team which won in 2:18.81. Christine Sammons led the women's team by winning two events and swimming a leg on the 400 medley relay team which won in 4:05.07. Her individual wins came in the 100 breast (1:09.21) and 200 medley (2:18.81). Becca Uphoff, who won the 1,000 free in 11:06.21, also was part of two winning relay teams, the 400 medley and 200 freestyle. Engholdt, a sophomore from Waukesha, was named WIAC men's diver of the week while Sammons, a sophomore from Hastings (Minn.) won the weekly team swimming honor. The diving team award went to Mankato (Minn.) freshman Serina Brekke who was fourth in the 3-meter event against Oshkosh. Wrestling A runner-up finish at 133 pounds by Brady Holtz led the Pointers in the Marquette Open at Milwaukee last weekend. No team scores were kept. Several other Pointers earned high finishes. Nathan Preslaski was third at 157. Fourths went to Ryan Boerner at 133 and Rob Wasley at 184. Finishing fifth were Eric Schadrie at 165 and Mitch Gehring and Mark Burger, both in the heavyweight division. Sixths went to Kare Goodness at 133 and Wes Kapping at 174. Preslaski, a sophomore from Pulaski, was named wrestler of the week. Earlier, he had posted a 9-2 win over Platteville's Chris Aultman, who was ranked No. 8 in NCAA Division 3. The Pointers are now idle until Jan. 5 when they will host Loras (Iowa) College at 7 p.m. Coaching Honor UW-SP men's cross country coach Rick Witt has been named 1999 NCAA Division 3 Midwest Region co-coach of the year by the U.S. Track Coaches Association and Mondo Surfacing. Witt shares this year's award with Al Carius of national champion North Central College of Naperville, Ill. Witt, who recently completed his 22nd season as coach of the Pointers, guided UW-SP to a sixth place finish in the national meet. Under Witt, the Pointers have finished no lower than seventh in the national meet the past four years. He is a 1977 graduate of Northern Iowa University. A similar honor for women went to Sue Addison of Wheaton (Ill.) College.