By Don Friday of the Stevens Point Journal

What looked like a blowout with about eight minutes remaining turned out to be a nail-biter for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men's basketball team Tuesday night.

The Pointers, leading 61-46, barley hung on to edge Lawrence University, 67-65, in a battle between two of the more highly regarded NCAA Division III teams in the state.

The non-conference win improved UWSP to 5-0 while the defending Midwest Conference champion Vikings, who have four starters back from last year's 22-3 team, dropped to 1-3. The Pointers will open conference play at home Saturday night against UW-River Falls.

Pointer coach Jack Bennett said the intensely played contest was just what his team needed heading into league play.

"There was a playoff atmosphere out there tonight," he said. "Lawrence is especially good on this floor. They shot the ball well, ran their offense crisply and have three of the best backcourt players we'll see all season. At the same time, they were also very physical. They would do very well in our league.

After trailing by as many as seven points in the opening half, UWSP closed the deficit to 34-31 at the break, then came out like gangbusters to start the second half.

Behind senior guard Russ Austin, the Pointers went on runs of 9-0 and 30-12 to open the 15-point lead.

The game's momentum, however, suddenly changed. After Dave Grzesk scored on a slam dunk to make it 61-46, the 6-foot-5 junior was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim. The Vikings sank both free throws and completed what amounted to a five-point play when Ben Zagorski drained a 3-pointer seconds later.

UWSP, bothered some by Lawrence's full-court press which made it difficult to execute the motion offense passing game, slowly but steadily lost ground as the game wound down to the final minutes.

The Pointers also missed several free throws, including two by freshman Joe Zuiker with seven seconds remaining and his team clinging to a 66-65 lead.

Grzesk, however, rebounded the second miss and was fouled immediately. He made one of the two shots, still with seven seconds left, and Lawrence standout JoJo DePagter was short on a desperation 3-pointer that would have won the game just before the final horn.

"We didn't make a lot of plays down the stretch but just enough to win it," Bennett said. "And we were able to stop them with our defense."

After struggling from the 3-point line in the Terry Porter Tip-Off tournament last weekend, the Pointers were back on target against the Vikings. Dan Denniston tallied all of his 15 points in the first half. Austin played a huge role in the Pointers' second half rally, nailing four 3-pointers in a row while finishing with 16 points, all but two after the break.

Westrum scored all eight of his points in the second half while Grzesk, Brant Bailey and Jay Bennett chipped in seven apiece.

The Pointers outshot the Vikings from the field, 42.9 percent to 34.4 percent and also had the accuracy advantage from long range, nailing 8 of 12 compared to Lawrence's 9 of 23.

The backcourt trio of Louie Clark (18), DePagter (17) and Zagorski (15) accounted for all but 15 of the Vikings' points.