Sunday, December 22, 2002

Bennett pushes Pointers to 9-0

By Jerry Rhoden
Central Wisconsin Sunday

STEVENS POINT - Only Santa knows if Nick Bennett was good this year.

But he sure wasn't bad Saturday night.

After a rough opening few minutes, Bennett settled into a zone that produced 22 of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's last 25 points of the first half, and helped propel the Pointers to a 75-50 win over Viterbo at Quandt Fieldhouse.

The victory sent the Pointers (9-0) into the holiday break with their best start since the 1938-39 season, when they went 11-0 before ending up 13-5.

The visiting V-Hawks (6-9), coached by former Pointer assistant Wayne Wagner, threw a number of defensive schemes Bennett's way, but nothing seemed to break his rhythm as he finished with a game- and career-best 29 points. Forward Jason Kalsow added 10 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

"They took advantage of our personnel, we didn't stop him," Wagner said. "We even fouled him a few times, and he made those shots."

One of those schemes involved Wagner dropping two and three defenders into the paint whenever the ball went to center Josh Iserloth, who is 12th on UW-SP's all-time scoring list but was limited to eight points on Saturday.

"That opened up some good looks for Nick," said UW-SP coach Jack Bennett, whose team hit 57 percent of its field goals.

"I wasn't really hitting any long shots," Bennett said on the eve of his 21st birthday. "My teammates did a great job of passing the ball."

Answers for the streak, which included the first two points of the second half and 11-of-12 shooting on the night, weren't much easier to come by for Bennett than they were for Wagner.

"The last two games now, I've done that," Bennett added, referring to an inauspicious opening that included an early foul. "But Tamaris (Relerford) told me to settle down, shut up and play my game."

"I sensed he was frustrated, and I told him 'Just play ball, don't worry about the refs or anything,'" said Relerford, who left the game with a mild ankle sprain that shouldn't cost him any practice time. "That's what a point guard does."

What the team did was embody the generous nature of the season; nine Pointers finished with at least one assist.

"Viterbo got our respect with the way they played us last time," Jack Bennett said of his Pointers' 66-56 win over the V-Hawks on Nov. 23. "But in the second half, I thought we really defended well."

Bennett, Iserloth and Neal Krajnik each nabbed a steal as the Pointers forced 11 turnovers while committing just seven. The Pointers outrebounded Viterbo 27-20.