UW-SP teams prepare for conference tournaments By DON FRIDAY Special to The Gazette It was "Championship Weekend" for two major sports at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Both the men's basketball team and hockey team secured their first conference championships since the 1993 season. The basketball team, which closed its regular season with a 20-4 record by whipping Mt. Senario College in a non-league game at Quandt Fieldhouse Wednesday night, 75-61, edged UW-River Falls last Saturday, 74-73, to earn an undisputed title in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Pointers (20-4 overall) finished league play with a 14-2 record, two games ahead of UW-Eau Claire and three ahead of UW-Platteville. The Blugolds, with a chance to tie for the crown had UW-SP lost to the Falcons, were upset at UW-Oshkosh Saturday to fall two games behind. The Pointers also earned the No. 1 seed and home court advantage throughout the second annual WIAC Tournament. UW-SP, which has won seven in a row, will host the winner of a play-in game Saturday at Whitewater between the Warhawks and UW-La Crosse on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. at Quandt. The semifinals are scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 24 and the championship game for Saturday, Feb. 26. In other WIAC tourney openers Tuesday, No. 7 seed Stout will be at No. 2 Eau Claire, No. 6 Oshkosh at No. 3 Platteville and No. 5 Superior at No. 4 River Falls. In WIAC regular season final games Wednesday night, Eau Claire whipped River Falls, 65-49, Stout shocked Platteville, 69-67, and Superior stopped Whitewater, 81-67. If the Pointers win on Tuesday, they will host the Superior-River Falls winner on Thursday at 7 p.m. UW-SP season ticket holders have until 4:30 p.m. Friday to reserve their same seats for the WIAC tournament. Other seats will be sold on a general admission basis. UW-Platteville won the inaugural WIAC tourney last year and went on to win the NCAA Division 3 national championship. The Pointers, who have won 12 of their last 13 games, also moved up in two national polls this week. UW-SP is now No. 2 in the NCAA 3 West Region, trailing only Buena Vista (Iowa), and No. 10 in the national rankings. The hockey team, which went into weekend action leading the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association by just one point over St. Norbert College, took care of business on the road to lock up its first league title since the 1993 season. UW-SP, avenging a home defeat a week earlier, posted a huge 6-2 win at UW-River Falls last Friday. The Pointers followed up with a 2-0 win over UW-Stout at Menomonie on Saturday to finish NCHA play with a 12-2 record. With an overall mark of 19-6 and wins in nine of their last 10 games, the Pointers held the No. 6 spot in this week's NCAA Division 3 national poll compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online. The Pointers open NCHA playoff competition as the top seed by hosting No. 8 seed St. Scholastica of Duluth, Minn. on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Willett Arena. It will be a best of two series with a mini-game played following the second game should the teams split the first two games. The playoffs will continue with the semifinals on Feb. 25-26 and the finals March 3-4. The Pointers will have home ice advantage for as long as they survive in the league playoffs. Other opening round hockey pairings pit No. 5 seed Lake Forest at No. 4 UW-River Falls, No. 7 UW-Stout at No. 2 St. Norbert and No. 6 UW-Eau Claire at No. 3 UW-Superior. All Pointer basketball tournament games can be heard on Radio Station WIZD, 99.9-FM. Hockey post-season action will be carried by Radio Station WW-SP, 90-FM. Men's Basketball Pointers 75, Mt. Senario 61 The battle between conference champions here on Senior Night here on Wednesday proved to be a mismatch with the Pointers dominating from the outset as they reached the 20-victory milestone for the second time in coach Jack Bennett's four years at the helm. UW-SP, forcing the Fighting Saints into repeated ball-handling errors, surged to a 37-20 halftime lead and increased the margin to a game-high 22 points, 50-28, with 11:37 remaining. Bennett made liberal use of his bench the rest of the way. Shooting accuracy from long range and the free throw line played key roles in the rout of the Midwest Athletic Conference champions from Ladysmith, who are affiliated with and ranked No. 24 in NAIA Division 2. Although shooting just 41.8 percent overall, the Pointers were 7 of 16 from 3-point range and 22 of 29 at the foul line. Mt. Senario, on the other hand, was 2 of 13 in trey attempts and 13 of 18 at the stripe. The Saints had 23 turnovers compared to 14 by UW-SP. The Pointers also battled the taller Saints, who came here as one of the top rebounding teams in the nation, to a near standoff (35-31) on the boards. Josh Iserloth, a rapidly developing 6-8 freshman from Plymouth, sank 11 of 12 free throws en route to a 20-point night to lead UW-SP. Brant Bailey contributed 19 points and seven rebounds while seven others broke into the scoring column. Ladysmith native Brent Larson had eight points and three assists. Mt. Senario (17-14) had four players in double figures, led by 5-10 freshman Marcell Willis with 14 points and 6-7 senior Larry Taylor with 12. Honored, along with their parents, in pre-game ceremonies were UW-SP seniors Bailey, Frank and Ben Benesh. Pointers 74, UW-River Falls 73 Leading 71-61 with 4:44 remaining, the Pointers had to survive a furious closing comeback by the host Falcons last Saturday. With Shawn Timm draining a pair of 3-pointers and the Pointers turning the ball over four times, River Falls closed to a single point and regained possession with 23 seconds to play. Both Scott DeWyre and Timm, however, missed shots from the outside in the final four seconds, allowing UW-SP to escape with the win. The Pointers shot .558 for the game and a blistering 65.5 percent in the second half (19 of 29). UW-SP was also 50 percent (8 of 16) from 3-point range, 8 of 10 at the line and controlled the boards by a 32-21 margin. Bailey led a balanced attack which saw four players score in double figures with 24 points. He finished WIAC play with 398 points for a 24.9 average, the highest single season league mark since 1984 when John Williams of River Falls averaged 25.9. Bailey became just the third player in UW-SP history to lead the league in scoring, joining Tom Ritzenthaler (1971) and Jon Julius (1992). Larson and Gabe Frank added 16 points each and Joe Zuiker 10. Bailey's 10 rebounds gave him a double-double while Zuiker pulled down nine rebounds and Frank seven. Larson doled out six assists. Hockey Pointers 6, UW-River Falls 2 The Pointers started quickly in the showdown game, opening a 3-1 first period lead on two goals by Ryan Maxson at the 45-second mark and at 13:46 and another by Nathan Shasby at 17:01. After a scoreless second period, the Pointers put the game away by scoring three straight goals for an insurmountable 6-1 lead before UW-RF tallied a consolation goal at 16:36. Scoring for UW-SP were D.J. Drayna at 6:49, Troy Michalski at 9:30 and Derek Toninato at 12:22. While the Pointers peppered River Falls goalie Jacque Vezina with 51 shots, UW-SP goalie Bob Gould stopped all but two of the Falcons' 27 shots. Pointers 2, UW-Stout 0 Gould blanked the Blue Devils for the second time in as many weekends as the Pointers played just well enough to secure the title-clinching victory. The game was scoreless until midway through the second period when David Boehm scored a power play goal for a 1-0 Pointer lead. Randy Enders tallied his third goal of the season on the power play with 9:05 left in the third period to close the scoring. Gould stopped all 32 shots launched by Stout while the Pointers managed 31 shots at Blue Devils' net-minder Justin Wilke. It was a rough contest with 19 penalties assessed, 11 against the host team. Women's Basketball Pointers 65, Marian College 51 The Pointers closed out their regular season with an 11-13 record by routing the Fond du Lac based Sabres in Berg Gym on Tuesday night. UW-SP jumped out to a 9-0 lead, increased the margin to 19 points (42-23) at halftime and was not seriously threatened the rest of the way. Sophomore forward Amie Schultz led the way with 18 points and eight rebounds. She had 16 points and seven boards in the first half. Sophomore Carry Boehning added 17 points and seven rebounds and senior Jess Ott 12 points. The Pointers shot a strong .468 from the field and controlled the boards by a 37-26 margin. UW-River Falls 72, Pointers 59 Three days after upsetting UW-Stout, the Pointers closed out their WIAC home season last Saturday by losing to UW-River Falls in Berg Gym. The loss dropped UW-SP to a final 5-11 record in league play while the Falcons improved to 8-7 in the WIAC and 13-10 overall. The defeat also dropped the Pointers to the No. 7 seed in the upcoming WIAC tournament. UW-SP will play at No. 2 seed UW-Oshkosh on Monday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. at Albee Hall. The Pointers lost twice to the second place Titans during the regular season by scores of 52-28 and 71-55. River Falls opened a 37-28 halftime lead and increased the margin to 17 points with 12:48 left. The Pointers closed to within 56-51 with 6:34 remaining but the Falcons used accurate free throw shooting down the stretch to pull away. Ott tossed in 21 points to lead UW-SP while Boehning, back in action after missing a game with an ankle injury, added 16 and Schultz 12. Megan Hodgson led the rebound effort by grabbing 12. Dana Stouvenel led the Falcons with 18 points. Track and Field The Pointer women finished third and the men fourth in the UW-Oshkosh Invitational last Saturday at the Kolf Sports Center. The women's team scored 68 points to finish behind UW-La Crosse and the host Titans in the six-team field. UW-SP had two first place finishers, Missy Kraemer in the 600 meters (1:42.95) and Leah Juno in the 800 meters (2:17.38). Both won by close margins. The Pointer men scored 84 points in the meet which was won by UW-La Crosse. The only first taken by the Pointers went to Shane Suehring in the 3,000. His winning time was 8:43.61 while teammate Robbie Pieper was second in 8:47.52. Wrestling Bouncing back from a 47-0 defeat at Augsburg College of Minneapolis (11-1), the top-ranked team in NCAA Division 3, the Pointers rebounded with a pair of dual meet wins last Saturday, 39-8 over UW-River Falls and 21-15 over UW-Eau Claire. The wins enabled UW-SP to finish its regular dual meet season with a 3-8 record, including 3-3 against WIAC opponents. The Pointers will compete in the conference tournament at Oshkosh on Saturday at 9 a.m. The Pointers won eight matches against the Falcons, including forfeits by Jason Kleinschmidt at 141 pounds and Nathan Preslaski at 157 and pins in 2:06 at heavyweight by Mitch Gehring and in 2:32 by Bob Weix at 165. Winning decisions were Darren Drummer, 22-8, at 125; Brady Holtz, 15-0, at 133; Mike Nechuta, 5-4, at 149; and Wes Kapping, 6-0, at 174. UW-SP won six matches against the Blugolds with Kleinschmidt getting a forfeit win at 141. Earning decisions were Holtz, 9-5, at 133; Preslaski, 5-2, at 157; Weix, 7-3, at 165; Kapping, 3-1, at 174; and Gehring, 5-2, at heavyweight. Swimming The Pointers will host the combined WIAC men's and women's championships Thursday through Saturday at the pool in the UW-SP Multi-Activities Center. The public is invited. Both teams are favored to dethrone UW-Eau Claire, based on season best times and the fact that the Pointers whipped the Blugolds in dual meet competition early this season and again in the conference relays.