Thursday, February 27, 2003

Titans beat Pointers
By Jerry Rhoden - Stevens Point Journal

STEVENS POINT - It's difficult to determine exactly where the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh's victorious run began, but it will leave Quandt Fieldhouse empty on Saturday night.

Oshkosh rode clutch 3-point shooting and an invasive defense to a 62-57 win over UW-Stevens Point in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Con-ference Tournament semifinals Thursday night.

"We were prepared, and our attitude was better coming into this one," said Titans senior Tim Dworak, last year's WIAC Player of the Year who scored a game-high 24 points. It was eight better than his last showing in Point. "We didn't want to embarrass ourselves."

UW-SP jumped out to a 14-5 lead and appeared to be riding a psychological wave carried over from a dominant first-round win over La Crosse.

"We both struggled early on," said Titans coach Ted Van Dellen, whose team will face second-seeded Whitewater, an 81-69 winner over Eau Claire on Thursday, in the WIAC finals Saturday night. "But then Scott Sowinski kind of threw us on his back."

With the Pointers (24-3) leading 22-12 with three minutes left in the first half, the senior from Appleton Xavier registered two steals and drained three 3-pointers as part of a 13-point burst that gave the Titans (21-6) a 25-22 halftime lead.

The momentum belonged to Oshkosh, which had reclaimed it following a forgettable 79-60 loss to the Pointers on Feb. 19.

"I don't think we matched up on their shooters a couple of times," UW-SP coach Jack Bennett said. "We've got to get to our spots."

Point edged into the lead twice early in the second half, on a deuce by Brian Bauer and a 3-pointer by Neal Krajnik. But then it was Dworak's turn to dial in from long distance. He hit consecutive treys to give UW-O the lead for good.

"Our defense played, oh, about a thousand times better than last time," Van Dellen said.

The Titans and Pointers combined for just 16 turnovers, but Oshkosh held UW-SP senior Josh Iserloth, the school's fifth all-time leading scorer, to three points on 1-of-8 shooting.

"The biggest thing is they executed on offense," said Nick Bennett, who braved a bad back that cost him the last four games of the regular season to score a team-high 17 points off the bench. "We didn't."

Jason Kalsow contributed 13 points for UW-SP, and Krajnik added 11.

Trailing 60-57, Bennett got the ball in his hands with time expiring, but his game-tying 3-pointer with three-tenths of a second left was waved off. Kyle Grusczynski tried to save the ball along the baseline following a missed 3-pointer by Kalsow, but Grusczynski was ruled out of bounds before he could fire the ball to Bennett.

The Titans inbounded, the Pointers were forced to foul, and Dworak capped the night with a pair of free throws.

The winner of Saturday's final is guaranteed a berth to the Division III Tournament, and Point, the WIAC's outright champion and fifth-ranked team in the nation, has only to wait through Sunday's selection to see where it will land.