Friday, December 13, 2002

Pointers hit triple numbers

By Jerry Rhoden
Journal staff

Blinding pain didn't keep Mike Prey from watching a pair of his free throws put the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men at the century mark in a 100-61 win over Coe College on Friday night.

Prey had broken his nose on a hard foul by Coe's Nick Palmer with 6.6 seconds left as the Pointers went 7-0 for the third straight year with a resounding victory in Berg Gymnasium, their first game in the venue since Quandt Fieldhouse opened for the 1970-71 season.

Story lines were nearly as plentiful as points for UW-SP, for whom senior Josh Iserloth hit a game-high 35 points before sitting out the final 15 minutes. Iserloth ended up five points shy of his own two-time school mark of 40.

"I didn't want to take a chance on him getting hurt," UW-SP coach Jack Bennett said. "Plus, there was no way I was going to rub it in on them. When it's almost a 40-point blowout, something about sportsmanship has to be shown."

Iserloth, who needs 448 points (24.8 per regular-season game) to become the school's all-time leading scorer, greeted his latest sojourn into the record book with a shrug.

"I just knew I had 25 at the half," the 6-foot-8 center said. "If I'm hitting all 3's, that's a bad night for me. I shouldn't be out there doing that. I should be getting the tough points inside."

He went 3-of-5 from the 3-point line, and the Pointers hit half of their 22 attempts from long range. Iserloth went 12-of-16 from the floor to lead all shooters, and his mates hit a lights-out 70 percent from the floor in the first half. That only compounded 26.5 and 29 percent shooting in each half by the Kohawks (1-4), who were none too energetic following semester finals and a five-hour drive on their first visit to Stevens Point.

"We were mentally and physically exhausted," ninth-year Coe coach Brett Brase said. "They shot 70 percent. Some of that was our defense ... but there's not a lot you can do."

There wasn't a lot Coe could do offensively early on as the Kohawks missed their first 10 attempts during a 15-0 Pointer run over the opening five minutes that saw Iserloth, Ron Nolting and Neal Krajnik hit 3-pointers in that stretch, and seven Pointers hit treys on the game.

"I thought our defense set the tone," Bennett said. "It was hard for them to get really good looks."

The Pointers outrebounded Coe 47-38, including 31-20 after the Kohawks missed a shot..