Fri 1-Dec-2000

UW-SP men's basketball team stays perfect during an emotional game for coach
Staff Reporter

APPLETON - On a night when attention was focused on the UW-Stevens Point head coach, it was junior Nick DeVos who stole the show for the Pointers. DeVos scored 17 points in the second half and pushed the Pointers to an 83-70 victory Thursday against Lawrence University. The victory is the sixth straight for UW-SP.

For Pointers head coach Jack Bennett, the win comes on the day his brother - and former Pointer head coach - Dick Bennett announced his retirement from the Univer-sity of Wisconsin men's basketball program.

"In the past we've talked about it and he has said that he's thinking about it," Jack Bennett said of his brother's announcement. "I just asked him, 'Are you sure?' and I know he prayed over it.

"I just said to him, 'If it's what you really feel, then God bless you, and I'll tell you that I feel it's a loss.'"

UW-SP's Josh Iserloth finished as the game's leading scorer with 24 points, hitting 10 of 14 from the field. Brent Larson also cracked double figures for the Pointers with 10 points.

"I thought we wore them down in the second half and it certainly helps to shoot the ball from the outside like we did," Bennett said. "I thought Jay (Bennett) shot it well, Kalongi (Kalima) drove the ball and then Nick DeVos was our trump card tonight."UW-SP led 60-56 with 11:18 remaining in the game when DeVos hit his first basket of the night. He proceeded to hit his next seven shots with two of them from three-point range.

The scoring by DeVos was part of a 27-14 swing for the Pointers en route to victory.

Overall, the shooting statistics were in UW-SP's favor. The Pointers were 60 percent (31-for-52) from the field and hit 58 percent (11-for-19) of their shots form three-point range. The Vikings hit 37 percent (21-for-56) of their field goals and made eight out of 22 attempts from behind the arc.

The Pointers are back in action Monday when they host Mt. Scenario.