For the first time since 2009, the University of
Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) men’s basketball team will play in the Sentry
Classic.

The Pointers (4-3) were set to host Edgewood
(2-5) Thursday, Dec. 22, and then will take on 20th-ranked North Central (Ill.) (7-3) in the
College Showcase Game at the 45th Sentry Classic at Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 29.

“It’s really unique and special, especially the history,”
said UWSP men’s basketball head coach Bob Semling. “I don’t know if all of our
fans know how the Sentry Classic started, it was really a time when not many
people were running tournaments or trying to take on something like that, to
host high school teams and college teams.

“Bob Krueger, the longtime head basketball coach here from
the 1960s and into the 1970s, he was the one that really had the idea, he was an
old Janesville Craig High School coach and he knew the value of a high school
tournament and wanted to get a mix of high school and college games and really
provide a great opportunity for the fans in central Wisconsin,” he said. “But
more than that, to then create funds for the community to use in a way to help
everybody in the greater Stevens Point,
Portage County area, with parks and improvements
to recreational facilities.”

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