By John Kemmeter

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) men’s basketball team will look to bounce back from a nonconference loss at St. Norbert (3-1), when it heads back on the road to play at UW-Superior (2-4) at 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2.

Junior guard Ethan Bublitz, who made his season debut at St. Norbert last week, and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) men’s basketball team conclude a three-game road stretch at UW-Superior Saturday, Dec. 2.
(John Kemmeter photo)

The Pointers trailed St. Norbert 55-54 in the final seconds Saturday, Nov. 25, when St. Norbert scored the final three points at the free throw line to come away with a 58-54 win to drop UWSP to 1-2 overall this season.

“We played well enough to win at St. Norbert, we just did not come up with the big play down the stretch on either end to seal it,” said UWSP men’s basketball head coach Bob Semling. “It was a really good college basketball game, low scoring because of both teams playing so hard defensively.

“But it was a good competitive contest, pretty much back-and-forth for 40 minutes,” he said.

Coming off a 93-72 win at Buena Vista (Iowa) Nov. 18, the Pointers had their top two returning scorers from a year ago, First Team All-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) junior guard Ethan Bublitz and senior guard MJ Delmore, make their season debut off the bench Saturday night at St. Norbert.

“We adapted well to having MJ and Ethan back in the lineup, but there’s definitely some issues, in terms of just comfort level, because of reps,” said Semling. “We went into that game with Ethan really having very few reps at all in practice, and MJ had just been back for a few days prior to that contest, so his conditioning was a factor.

“It’s tough to come into a game that is that hard fought, if you haven’t been in a rhythm and your timing’s not there,” he said.

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