Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) men’s basketball team will look to hand third-ranked and reigning National Runner-up UW-Oshkosh (20-1, 10-0) its first conference loss of the season when the two teams meet in Oshkosh at 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9.

The Pointers (14-6, 6-4), who split a pair of games last week, will follow with their final regular-season home game, when they host UW-Stout (6-15, 0-10) at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13.

“We need a signature win,” said UWSP men’s basketball head coach Bob Semling. “We’ve played one of the most difficult schedules, but to this point we have not had that win, and we have that opportunity this week.

“We want to go on the road at Oshkosh and make them be at their best for 40 minutes, and push them into those final minutes and have a chance to steal that game from them on their homecourt,” he said.

Ranked 20th in last week’s D3hoops.com Top 25, UWSP traveled to play at 25th-ranked UW-La Crosse (15-6, 8-2) Thursday, Jan. 31, after La Crosse won at UWSP 61-57 Jan. 16.

With junior guard Ethan Bublitz out with an injury suffered in practice two days earlier, the Pointers trailed La Crosse 18-16 when they used an 11-3 run to build a 27-21 lead with 4:40 to play in the first half, and took a 27-23 lead into halftime.

The game remained tight through the mid-point of the second half, before La Crosse used an 8-2 spurt to take a 46-40 lead with 9:48 to play. Senior forward Canon O’Heron scored on a layup to pull UWSP within 51-47 with 5:46 left, but La Crosse scored the next five-points to extend its lead to 56-47 with 2:03 to play and went on to a 60-52 win.

O’Heron was 8-of-11 from the field and scored 18 points, while senior guard Drew Fredrickson added 10 points and nine rebounds to lead the Pointers, who shot 20.8 percent on three-pointers (5-of-24) in the loss.

“We started well and got the lead in the first half, and we just didn’t come out that first critical three, four minutes of the second half and send a clear message that we were going to be better in the second half, and they did,” said Semling. “They took control of the game immediately to start the second half, and up until then we did a really good job of overcoming Ethan’s injury and not having him, and then when they made their run and got the lead, that’s when I felt like we were vulnerable again and started to doubt ourselves.”

UWSP looked to bounce back Saturday afternoon against UW-River Falls (9-12, 2-8), which jumped out to a 14-4 lead five minutes into the game and maintained a 34-28 advantage with 4:14 remaining in the first half, when the Pointers went on a 14-2 run to build a 42-36 lead with 1:03 to go and carried a 42-38 advantage into halftime.

River Falls opened the second half on an 8-0 run to grab a 44-42 lead with 16:28 left, but UWSP answered with a 16-4 run to go up 58-48 with 11:01 to play and led the rest of the way, as the Pointers held on to a 65-62 lead with 55 seconds remaining and knocked down their next four free throws to close out a 69-63 win.

Senior guard Nate Dodge scored 13 points, junior forward/center Matt Koerner had 11 points off the bench, and Bublitz scored three points in 13 minutes off the bench.

“It was important for us to regroup during that first 20 minutes and get that lead back, which we did going into halftime,” said Semling. “And then we wanted to build that lead and we built it to 10, but then we let them right back in the game.

“And that’s what we’re working hard in practice, to sustain good play and eliminate possessions where we let our opponents back in the game,” he said. “It’s things that we can control, so we keep addressing those things in practice.”

UWSP fell out of the Top 25 this week for the first time this season, as it was the top team in the others receiving votes category, and was set to play at UW-Whitewater (14-7, 3-7) Wednesday, Feb. 6.

The Pointers will be on the road again Saturday night at Oshkosh, which won 78-68 at UWSP Jan. 9, and carries a 19-game win streak into this week.

The Pointers will follow with their final home game of the season next Wednesday against Stout for Senior Night, as UWSP will honor its seniors in Dodge, Fredrickson, O’Heron, Brett Tauber, Mark Nelson, Koko Songolo and Chaz Mootz, while Bublitz also came in with that class and is a fourth year junior and eligible for a medical hardship for next season if he decides to play.

“Those guys have been through a lot of adversity together, they’ve really grown up and they have been tremendous guys in our program and have represented our program in a first-class manor,” said Semling, whose team won at Stout 72-61 Jan. 23. “Last year’s WIAC Tournament Championship and the Sweet 16 bid are two of the team achievements that these guys have accomplished together, and we obviously had high hopes and great expectations going into this season.

“But we can’t allow injuries and slumps or illnesses to become excuses and reasons to fail, before we even fail,” he said. “We still have a chance this year to do something special.”