Thu, Feb 14, 2002

Pointer men win; tie for WIAC lead
By JESSE HORNE
Journal staff

The stars were in the proper alignment for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men's basketball team Wednesday.

The Pointers defeated River Falls 77-74 to improve to 10-5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and 19-5 overall. Combined with a Oshkosh's 74-66 upset of La Crosse, UW-SP moved into a four-way tie for the conference lead heading into the final day of the regular season on Saturday.

"We took care of business tonight," said Pointer head coach Jack Bennett "I knew that this was going to be a struggle. A lesser team would have folded at the end."

The victory officially gives UW-SP a first-round home game in next week's WIAC tournament. The tourney winner receives an automatic bid in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Bennett hopes more than one team from the WIAC will be selected for the right to play for a national title.

"We are putting the tournament on a disproportional plane," he said. "You win those three games, you get an automatic bid. You win three months of battles, you get the satisfaction of being a champion without a guarantee you are going to get in the NCAA playoffs."

The Pointers will host Superior Saturday at Quandt Fieldhouse. If UW-SP wins, it will claim a share of the WIAC regular season title for the third straight season.

UW-SP was ahead 41-33 at the start of the second half when River Falls (8-7 WIAC, 15-8) went on a 10-2 run to tie the score at 43-all. Brian Mathison, who joined Rich Melzer with a team-best 18 points, sank a 3-pointer to give the Falcons the lead at 51-49 with 12:31 left to play.

The Pointers promptly retook the lead and kept it until Edmund Johnson sank a two free throws with 41 seconds left to play. Johnson finished with 13 points.

Kalonji Kadima, who was the game's top scorer with 24 points, nailed a jumper with 19 seconds left to give UW-SP a 75-74 lead. He tacked on a pair of free throws with one second remaining to ice the win.

"He's not back at 100 percent yet," Bennett said of Kadima, who has missed time with a knee injury. "He is probably at about 80 percent, but he is, by far, our most experienced player. Tonight, he came up huge with the big plays.

"We hung in there with our young kids when he was out. Now that he is back, I think we are a better basketball team than we were before he got hurt."

River Falls at UW-SP
RIVER FALLS (74) - Mathison 5-7 5-5 18, Melzer 7-15 4-4 18, Johnson 5-9 3-3 13, DeWyre 6-11 0-0 17, Becker 1-4 0-0 2, Kukla 1-2 0-0 3, Duncan 1-1 0-0 3. Totals: 26-49 12-12 74.

UW-SP (77) - Iserloth 4-14 4-6 13, Kalsow 5-8 2-3 12, Krajnik 3-6 2-4 9, Nolting 4-4 0-0 10, Kadima 8-13 4-4 24, Relerford 1-2 0-0 3, DeVos 1-2 2-2 4, Maus 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 27-50 14-21 77.

UW-River Falls 33 41 - 74
UW-Stevens Point 41 36 - 77
3-Point Goals: RF - 10-17 (Mathison 3-5, DeWyre 5-9, Kukla 1-2, Duncan 1-1) SP - 9-17 (Iserloth 1-5, Krajnik 1-2, Nolting 2-2, Kadima 4-6, Relerford 1-2). Rebounds: RF - 22, SP - 25. Personal Fouls: RF - 16, SP - 10. Fouled Out: none.