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UWSP Men's
Basketball Crushes Marian
By Jerry Rhoden
Central Wisconsin Sunday
Original Article
Box Score
STEVENS POINT - With the Pointers ready to pull back the curtain on their
conference schedule, they first put up one of iron against visiting Marian
College on Saturday.
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men, ranked third in the nation in
Division III by D3hoops.com, spread 24 assists among 11 players, forced 13
Marian turnovers and rolled to an 83-39 win in their last nonconference game
before facing off against preseason Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference favorite UW-River Falls on Wednesday.
But first things first.
Neal Krajnik, the team's lone senior, and Nick Bennett combined to chalk up
15 of the team's first 17 points in an offensive outburst that had the
Sabres rattled early as scorers came from all directions.
"Everybody can pass the ball on our team," said Pointer Nick Bennett, who
led all scorers with 17 points and equaled Krajnik with three treys.
"If somebody has a better shot, you get it to them. Everybody knows how to
cut to the hoop."
When Marian double-teamed standout Pointer junior Jason Kalsow in the post,
Kalsow either beat it or was able to dish off to a teammate, turning the
ball over just once.
"As long as we have guys cutting, they're easy to find," said Kalsow, who
tallied 10 points and grabbed a team-best eight rebounds. Matt Bouche came
off the bench to grab seven rebounds.
David Whitenack led Marian with 10 points and is the team's top scorer at
8.0 per game.
The energized Pointers (3-0) spread seven blocks among six players compared
to just one for Marian.
And UWSP's defense combined with a futile offensive performance by Marian to
widen the gap early as Point kept Marian from double digits until two
minutes remained in the opening half. Point held a 41-11 advantage at the
break.
"I didn't think we'd shoot so poorly," said Marian head coach Mark Boyle,
whose squad (0-3) made just 16 percent of its field-goal attempts in the
first half.
"We were trying to run a high-low motion. We had a couple of guys get into
foul trouble, and when our new guys went in, our posts kept stepping out."
That vacation of the middle could help explain the Pointers' 52-31 edge in
rebounding, as could a rediscovered tenacity under the boards that lacked at
times last season. When Marian missed a shot, it got just three of its own
rebounds while Point snagged 37 on that end of the floor.
"Instead of playing down a level, I was happy that we maintained our
standards," UWSP head coach Jack Bennett said. "We passed well, we
challenged shots."
UWSP, which boasted the nation's sixth-best field-goal defense last season,
continued the trend by holding Marian to 22.6 percent for the game on
Saturday.
"That says we challenged things," Jack Bennett added. "And we've got
unselfish guys ... who don't hold onto the ball for too long."
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