By Don Friday of the Stevens Point Journal

 The word on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men’s basketball team last season was that if they were going to beat you, make them do it from the outside.

That strategy worked for UW-Stevens Point in a second round NCAA Division III playoff game when the Pointers shocked the Pioneers on their home court.

The Pioneers in general and Dan Wargolet in particular demonstrated to UWSP Saturday night, however, that the perceived weakness has been corrected.

With Wargolet draining 6 of 8 attempts from 3 point range, Platteville defeated the Pointers for the second time this season, 60-41, before a turnout of 2,194 fans at Williams Fieldhouse.

The victory boosted Platteville to 10-0 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and 19-0 overall.

The Pointers, whose postseason playoff hopes continued to fade, dropped their second straight game while falling to 6-5 in the WIAC and 14-6 overall. UW-SP also fell to fourth place in the conference, two full games behind runner-up Oshkosh and just a half game ahead of UW-Whitewater which invades Quandt Fieldhouse at 7p.m. on Wednesday.

UW-P, ahead by 27-20 at halftime, was unable to shake the Pointers for the first nine minutes of the second half.

The Pioneers, however, used a 21-9 run in the final 11:30 to break the game open. Coach Bennett found nothing wrong with the Pointers’ effort.

"I feel badly that the margin grew so large in the final minutes," he said. "I felt worse after our loss to La Crosse. Had we played this hard in that one, we would have won."

"This game had all the earmarks of our game here in the playoffs last year, but Wargolet beat us. I was upset on just a couple of his shots where we did not seem to sense the urgency. On the others, he hit tough shots with a hand in his face."

"We hung with them for a long time. They just made some big plays down the stretch."

In addition to UW-P hitting 7 of 15 treys, compared to UWSP’s 3 of 15, Platteville controlled the boards by a 35-23 margin, including a 15-3 advantage on the offensive glass, committed just seven turnovers while forcing the Pointers into 15 and had a 12-7 margin in assists.

About the only area where the Pioneers did not play up to standard was at the free throw line. Platteville converted on just 11 of 22 attempts compared to Point’s 12 of 17.

UWSP compounded its problems by shooting just 38 percent from the field (13 of 34) compared to 43.8 percent (21 of 48) by UW-P.

Wargolet, a 6-4 junior, burned the Pointers for 22 points while hitting 8 of 12 shots. Senior guard Ryan Furhmann added 11 points while the Pointers limited top scorer Ben Hoffman to just seven.

The Pointers were led by Dan Denniston and Brant Bailey with 10 points each. Russ Austin chipped in 8 points.

"We did not have the balance we needed offensively," Bennett said. "We are not getting enough help from other positions."

"I believe these kids will play hard. The coaching staff will not allow them to feel sorry for themselves too long, although you never know what is in the heart of an athlete."

"If things do not improve, however, we may start taking a longer look at some of our younger players."