Pointers win share of WIAC title, clinch top seed in tourney By DON FRIDAY Special to the Gazette For the first time in seven seasons, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men's basketball team can call itself a conference champion. With a 67-54 win at UW-Stout Wednesday night, the Pointers clinched at least a share of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title. The last time UW-SP stood at the top of the conference standings was in the 1992-93 season, when the Pointers shared the crown with UW-Platteville. If UW-SP can get another victory Saturday at UW-River Falls, it will win its first outright title since 1991-92. The win over Stout improved the Pointers to 13-2 in the conference and kept their one-game lead over UW-Eau Claire. However, by virtue of Platteville's win over UW-Superior Wednesday, UW-SP also clinched the top seed in the WIAC tournament. Since the Pointers and Blugolds split during the regular season, the tiebreaker is record over the third place team. The Pointers beat Platteville twice, while Eau Claire lost both of its games to the Pioneers. The winner of the WIAC tournament, which runs from Feb. 22-26, will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. UW-SP moved up to No. 13 in the latest NCAA Division III rankings by D3hoops.com. UW-Eau Claire is ninth and UW-Platteville fell from No. 11 to No. 15. The Pointers are also ranked third in the Division III West Region poll. Buena Vista (Iowa) is ranked No. 1 and St. Thomas (Minn.) is No. 2. Pointers 67, UW-Stout 54 UW-SP pulled away midway through the second half using a 15-7 surge to open a 61-43 lead with 4:23 to go. Brant Bailey had nine of his game-high 27 points during the stretch, where the Pointers built their lead through free throws and layups. The Pointers bounced back from a cold start after hitting only two of their first 14 shots. Stout wasn't able to capitalize, though, and led 13-6 with 11:16 left in the half. UW-SP outscored the Blue Devils 21-11 to end the half and take a 27-24 advantage into the locker room. For the game, the Pointers connected on 23-of-52 shots (44 percent) while Stout made 20-of-50 field goal attempts (40 percent). UW-SP owned the boards, outrebounding the Blue Devils 38-24. Bailey led the way with 12 rebounds (eight defensive). Neither team turned the ball over much, as Point had 10 giveaways compared to seven for Stout. Bailey set a pair of single-season WIAC records in the victory. Bailey was 9-of-13 from the free throw line and is now 126-of-165 in league games. That breaks the made free throw mark set in 1967 by Eau Claire's Stan Johnson. His free throw attempts break the record of Stout's Cal Glover, who attempted 164 in 1971. Point guard Brett Larson had 13 points and connected on three of his four 3-point attempts. He also had seven assists. Aaron Vachowiak scored 21 points for Stout and grabbed seven rebounds. Ben Kuepers added 16 points. Hockey It's coming down to crunch time in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association regular season race. UW-Stevens Point, which went into action last weekend with a three point lead over runner-up St. Norbert College, saw their margin shrink after absorbing a 3-1 setback at the hands of UW-River Falls last Saturday before 1,120 fans at Willett Arena. Just 24 hours earlier, the Pointers extended their winning streak to seven games with a 3-0 home ice win over UW-Stout before a turnout of 1,229 fans. The Pointers (17-6-0) still lead the NCHA with a 9-2-0 record but the Green Knights (9-2-1, 18-3-2), who posted a key road win at UW-Superior last weekend, are in hot pursuit just a point behind (20-19). The race will be decided with games this weekend. The Pointers get a quick rematch with the third place Falcons (7-3-2, 13-6-4) on Friday at 7:05 p.m. at River Falls' Hunt Arena. On Saturday, UW-SP invades Stout (1-10-1, 5-17-1) at 7:30 p.m. Both games can be heard on Radio Station WWSP, 90-FM. St. Norbert will be at home both nights for games with St. Scholastica (1-11-0, 6-17-0) on Friday and UW-Superior (8-4-0, 16-7-0) on Saturday. Entering the weekend, the Pointers are No. 6 in the NCAA Division III rankings by U.S. College Hockey Online. St. Norbert is No. 2 and Norwich (Vt.) is ranked No. 1. UW-River Falls 3, Pointers 1 The Pointers' only goal came at 4:13 of the opening period when Ryan Maxson, assisted by Derek Toninato and Craig Busse, fired the puck past Falcons' goalie Jacque Vezina. The lead, however, stood up until the third period when River Falls erupted for three goals to pull the game out. The first came just 36 seconds into the period by Tim Beres. The go-ahead goal came shortly thereafter from Ryan Saverine who beat Bob Gould at 2:07. The Falcons added an insurance goal at the 12:06 mark by Jared Anderson. The Pointers had a huge 41-17 advantage in shots on goal but Vezina was equal to the challenge. Gould had 14 saves for UW-SP and was named the team's player of the week. Pointers 3, UW-Stout 0 The Pointers scored a goal in each period while Gould posted the shutout with 28 saves. Scoring goals for UW-SP were Mikhail Salineko at 17:46 of the opening period, assisted by Zenon Kochan and David Boehm; Boehm at 17:40 of the second period, assisted by Salienko; and Jim Westergaard at 10:30 of the third stanza, assisted by Mike Slobodnik and Marco Capizzano. Women's Basketball Pointers 74, UW-Stout 67 The Pointers overcame a slow start to knock off the Blue Devils Wednesday night in Berg Gymnasium. UW-SP (10-12 overall, 5-10 in WIAC) trailed 9-2 and 19-12 before exploding for a 19-2 run midway through the first half. Most of the damage was done from the free throw line, where the Pointers connected on 9-of-12 from the charity stripe. Jess Ott and Nikki Seaman both hit 3-pointers while Amie Schultz's jumper started the run. After the dust cleared, Point had a 10-point, 31-21 lead. After taking a 37-29 advantage into the locker room, the Pointers opened the second half with another surge. A 14-5 run gave UW-SP its biggest lead of the game, 19 points, 53-34 with 15:01 to go. Stout (12-10 overall, 8-6 in WIAC) chipped away though and got within three, 68-65, on an Andrea Bresette jumper with 2:00 left. But the Pointers sealed the win at the line, hitting 6-of-10. UW-SP shot 22-of-52 from the field (42 percent) compared to Stout's 26-of-71 (37 percent). The Pointers held a big advantage at the line, connecting on 25-of-38, while the Blue Devils made 9-of-16. Ott paced the Pointers with 28 points on 7-of-13 shooting. She was 10-of-11 from the line. Cicily Trice had 15 points and Schultz added 12. UW-Platteville 59, Pointers 43 The Pointers suffered through one of their coldest shooting games of the season in the loss at Platteville last Saturday. UW-SP made only 19 of 60 shots for an icy 31.7 percent, missed all six attempts from 3-point range, sank just 5 of 12 free throws, lost the rebound battle, 45-39, and turned the ball over 17 times. The Pioneers opened a 34-20 halftime lead and extended the margin to a game-high 21 points at 48-27 with 13:28 remaining. The only consistent scoring threat for the Pointers was Carry Boehning who nailed 10 of 16 shots while scoring 21 points. She completed a double-double by pulling down 10 rebounds. Megan Hodgson also grabbed 10 rebounds but nobody else scored more than six points. Platteville had four players in double figures, led by Sara Maas with 12 points and 18 rebounds. Swimming The Pointer teams, tapering for the upcoming Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference meet which they will host this weekend, came up short for the first time in dual meet competition this season at NCAA Division 1 UW-Green Bay last Sunday. The Phoenix men prevailed, 148-93, while the Green Bay women also won by an almost identical 142-99 margin. UW-SP, which concluded 5-1 dual meet seasons for both the men and women, hosts the combined WIAC meet on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Multi-Activities Center. The Pointer men were led by Kevin Engholdt, who won both of his diving specialties, taking the 1-meter with 225.55 points and the 3-meter with 190.75 points. He was named WIAC diving athlete of the week for the second consecutive week and also received the Pointer diving events player of the week honor. Other individual winners for the Pointers were Jeremy Francioli in the 200 backstroke in 1:54.89 and Randy Boelk in the 200 medley in 1:57.13.UW-SP also won the 200 medley relay in 1:36.19 with a unit of Francioli, Brent Newport, Harris and Hanson. Francioli was named Pointer player of the week for swimming events. Firsts for the Pointer women went to Becca Uphoff in the 500 freestyle (5:17.93) and Abigail Ray in the 3-meter diving (192.90 points). Uphoff was named Pointer player of the week. Indoor Track and Field The UW-SP men bested a 16-team field to claim championship honors in the annual Pointer Eastbay Invitational last Saturday at the Multi-Activities Center. The Pointer women, meanwhile, placed a strong third in a 14-team field. The UW-SP men had a healthy margin over runner-up UW-Platteville, 164.33 to 102.33. Minnesota-Duluth beat Carthage to win the women's crown, 153-127. The Pointers nipped Whitewater for third place honors, 95-94. A key to the win for the UW-SP men was first place finishes in two relays, the 4x200 in 1:32.12 and the distance medley team in 10:07.51. The distance medley, consisting of Dan Schwamberger, Jessie Drake, Chris Horvat and Ben Treptow, was named the men's track events "player of the week." Individual winners for the Pointers were Mike Mead in the high jump (2.03 meters), Ryan Wenos in the 3,000 meters (8:46.75) and Jesse LaLonde in the 1,000 meters (2:32.86). Joel Schult, who was fourth in the shot put and seventh in the 35-pound weight throw, was named men's field events player of the week. The Pointer women had just one first place finisher, Marcie Fischer in the 3,000 meters in 10:54.72. She was named the women's track events player of the week. Jen Hau, who was second in the pole vault and fourth in the 55-meter hurdles, received the women's field events player of the week honor. Wrestling A second place finish by Brady Holtz at 133 pounds led the Pointers to a fifth place finish last Saturday in the 23-team UW-Eau Claire Invitational. Holtz was pinned by an opponent from Harper Junior College in 3:47 in the title match. He was named Pointer wrestling player of the week. Other high finishes for UW-SP included thirds by Mike Nechuta at 149 and Mitch Gehring at heavyweight. Darren Dummer earned a fourth at 125. The Pointers finished with 41.5 points. Augsburg (Minn.) won the title with 108.5.