Sun, Feb 17, 2002

UW-SP men capture share of WIAC title

STEVENS POINT - The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men's basketball team claimed a share of its third straight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title with an 83-56 victory against Superior on Saturday.

UW-SP will share the crown with Whitewater and Oshkosh as all three teams finished the regular season with 11-5 record in the WIAC.

It's the first time since 1985-1987 a Pointer team has three-peated with conference titles. UW-SP head coach Jack Bennett didn't think it was possible in 2002.

"Once is nice and twice is hard. But three times is a testimony to the toughness this group had this year," he said. "Quite honestly, when we were 0-2 at the start of the year, I know most thought that this would just be a regrouping year for Stevens Point."

"It probably crossed our minds as well. But our players got better as the season went on. We are probably playing our best ball of the season right now," he said.

The Pointers will enter the upcoming WIAC tournament as the No. 2 seed and will host seventh-seeded Platteville in the quarterfinals Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Quandt Fieldhouse.

Trailing Superior (3-13 WIAC, 11-14) by six midway through the first half, UW-SP nailed three straight 3-pointers to kick off a 15-5 run. Ron Nolting hit the first two long balls, followed up by a 3-pointer from Kalonji Kadima. Nolting, along with Josh Iserloth, finished with a team-high 13 points, while Kadima added 11.

The Yellowjackets cut the deficit to one with 3:25 left before halftime when UW-SP put together an 8-1 run to close the first 20 minutes of action.

Jason Kalsow capped off the streak with a 3-pointer at the buzzer and gave the Pointers momentum heading into the locker room, Bennett said.

"Big baskets right at the end of the first half take on a real value beyond what they should," he said "I thought Jason's shot propelled us into the second half. All of a sudden, we were up by eight and came out and played a great second half of basketball."

Iserloth began the second half for UW-SP by scoring the team's first nine points. The Pointers benefited from a Yellowjacket offense which turned cold, scoring on only one of their first nine shot attempts in the second half.

Joining Iserloth, Kadima and Nolting in double figures was Tamaris Relerford with 12 points - all coming from beyond the 3-point arc. Bennett was happy to see more than one player shouldering the scoring burden.

"This is the way that I like it when we can be balanced," he said. "We don't need to depend on someone like Josh to have those monster games."

UW-Superior 29 27 - 56
UW-Stevens Point 37 46 - 83

SUPERIOR (56) - Peterson 0-1 1-4 1, Kastern 1-5 1-3 3, Andre 3-8 6-7 12, Vesel 3-8 1-2 8, Strilzuk 5-12 1-2 13, Maier 2-6 1-2 6, Bailey 1-2 0-0 3, Allagh 0-1 0-0 0, DeFoe 4-11 2-3 10. Totals: 19-54 13-23 56.

UW-SP (83) - Iserloth 5-9 2-4 13, Kalsow 1-2 5-6 8, Krajnik 1-2 5-7 7, Kadima 5-6 0-0 11, DeVos 1-3 0-0 2, Relerford 4-5 0-0 12, Zirbel 1-1 0-0 2, Nolting 4-7 2-2 13, Guenther 1-1 2-2 5, Ebert 0-1 0-0 0, Capelle 0-1 0-0 0, Bennett 0-0 2-2 2, Mallett 0-1 0-0 0, Maus 3-3 0-0 6, Gleich 0-2 2-2 2. Totals: 26-44 20-25 83.

3-Point Goals: SUP - 5-16 (Peterson 0-1, Vesel 1-4, Strilzuk 2-3, Maier 1-2, Bailey 1-2, DeFoe 0-4), SP - 11-17 (Iserloth 1-2, Kalsow 1-1, Krajnik 0-1, Kadima 1-2, DeVos 0-1, Relerford 4-4, Nolting 3-4, Guenther 1-1, Ebert 0-1). Rebounds: SUP - 32, SP - 31. Personal Fouls: SUP - 26, SP - 22. Fouled Out: SUP - Andre, Vesel. SP - none.