Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

The seventh-ranked University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) men’s basketball team needed a second-half rally to win at Hope (Mich.) Saturday, Dec. 8, and will face another tough matchup on the road with a nonconference rival Saturday, Dec. 15.

The Pointers (6-1) came back from an 11-point, second-half deficit to win 82-74 at Hope (4-3), and will play at St. Thomas (Minn.) (6-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, in their final game before Christmas.

“(The UWSP-St. Thomas series) set the standard for the best teams in the best leagues playing each other, and that doesn’t happen that often in DIII,” said UWSP men’s basketball head coach Bob Semling. “But that goes all the way back to their former head coach (Steve Fritz), they wanted to challenge themselves and play in Quandt Gym, and of course we wanted to play another team that was going to be ranked and a team that was going to play deep into the NCAA Tournament.

“So it’s been a great series,” he said.

UWSP looked to win at Hope for the third time in a row, and for fifth time overall in the last six meetings between the teams, when they played in front of a crowd of 2,271 Saturday night at the DeVos Fieldhouse in Holland, Mich.

Senior guard Nate Dodge scored six points early to help the Pointers get out to an 11-6 lead with 15:21 to go in the first half, while the game remained tight throughout the opening half, as Hope came back to take a 29-27 lead with 5:25 left before halftime.

The Pointers answered with a three-point play from junior guard Ethan Bublitz and a layup from junior guard Aaron Knez to go up 32-29 with 4:10 remaining in the half, but Hope, which has reached the NCAA Division III Tournament three years in a row and 11 times in the last 13 seasons, responded with an 11-0 run to take a 40-32 lead into intermission.

“We had a tough stretch at the end of the half, we didn’t score the last three-and-a-half, four minutes, and it affected our defense,” said Semling. “But there was no panic, there was a greater sense of urgency, and we knew that we just had to play much better in the second half and much more consistently.

“We didn’t want to panic and didn’t think we had to do it on our own, we wanted to stay with our game plan and execute on both ends of the floor,” he said. “And I thought we did that very well.”

Hope extended its lead to 45-34 with 18:42 to play in the second half, and maintained a 58-51 advantage with 12:51 left when senior guard Drew Fredrickson hit a pair of three-pointers to power a 10-2 run that gave UWSP a 61-60 lead with 9:23 to go.

The game saw three lead changes and two ties before Fredrickson buried back-to-back three-pointers to give the Pointers a 71-67 lead with 5:02 remaining, and following a Hope jumper 15 seconds later that made it 71-69, the UWSP defense limited Hope without a field goal for the next 4:23.

Dodge hit a three-pointer with 53 seconds left to push the Pointers’ led to 78-71, and Bublitz followed with four free throws to close out an 82-74 win.

“It’s a good reference point for us,” said Semling. “That was the first time this year where we were down, so that was good to see how we responded.”

Senior forward Canon O’Heron finished with 23 points and nine rebounds, Fredrickson was 6-of-8 from three-point range and scored a career-high 20 points, Bublitz had 19 points and nine rebounds, and Dodge totaled 13 points, four rebounds and five steals to lead a balanced attack for UWSP, which outscored Hope 50-34 in the second half.

“We had a lot of guys rise up,” said Semling. “With the absence of Mark Nelson, Drew really rose up and had one of his best games, and Canon was really good in the second half.

“Ethan was good, and Nate, even though he was guarded probably as well as anybody’s guarded him, they were face guarding him and limiting touches, but he stayed patient, and then he hit the big shot at the end that was kind of that dagger three that put us up seven under a minute,” he said. “It was a great team win and we played flawlessly, almost, in the second half.”

The Pointers hosted Ripon (4-4) Wednesday, Dec. 12, where they fell behind 13-4 to start the game, then followed with a 34-8 run to take a 38-21 lead with 2:02 left in the first half.

UWSP went on to win 71-49, as Dodge was 4-of-6 on three-pointers and finished with 24 points and four rebounds, Fredrickson had 11 points and five rebounds, senior forward/Brett Tauber recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four assists, and junior guard Aaron Knez chipped in with seven points off the bench.

The Pointers will be back on the road to play St. Thomas in St. Paul Saturday night, where UWSP is 0-5 since 2008-09.

“We’ve been really proud of how well we’ve played and how hard we’ve played over there,” said Semling. “We’ve led at halftime, we’ve led pretty much from start to finish, but we have not been able to close out a game over there.

“We’ve lost some games at the buzzer, and they’ve been really good college games, but the bottom line is you have to win those games,” he said. “And I know this group of seniors would love to be that team that can break through over there on their home court, and compete as well as our other teams have over there and execute at a high level, but then to be able to close the game out and make winning plays down the stretch.”

St. Thomas has won six games in a row since a 78-77 loss at Brooklyn in its season opener, and has been led by 6-0 freshman guard Anders Nelson (team-high 18.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 2.5 steals per game), 6-5 senior forward Connor Bair (13 points) and 6-2 senior guard Michael Hannon (9.7 points, 40.5 percent on three-pointers).

“Nelson immediately makes them a contender in their league, and I think makes them a Top 25 team, for sure,” said Semling. “He was a very high-level Division II (recruit), he had the best DII’s in the Midwest offering him full scholarships, but he’s a kid from Edina, Minnesota, and he turned them down to stay in St. Paul and play for St. Thomas.

“He’s a difference-maker, and everybody in that league said that would make them a contender for the (Conference) Title for the next four years, as long as he’s there, that’s how good he is,” he said. “He’s such a good passer, he’s really dynamic in transition and in the halfcourt, making plays off the dribble, plus then he’s a very high-level scorer and he’s very mature for a freshman.”

Senior guard/forward Mark Nelson (21) is averaging 5.2 points per game off the bench this season for the seventh-ranked UWSP men’s basketball team. (John Kemmeter photo)

Meanwhile, UWSP senior guard/forward Mark Nelson may be out for an extended period of time after he suffered a foot injury at practice last week.

“It could be six-to-eight weeks, but it could be more, and everybody’s different, so Mark needs to get a couple of different opinions, and then we’ll go from there,” said Semling. “If Mark responds to treatment, I don’t know if he would have surgery, but if he would just try to do some things to treat it and to promote bone healing, and if he is able to come back in six weeks, he could still get back for the second half of the WIAC, and then the postseason.”