A stronger commitment on the defensive end of the court carried the day for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men’s basketball team Wednesday night.

Forcing nine second half turnovers and containing UW-Stout’s primary offensive weapons, Jeremy Preston and Jeremy Liebfried, the Pointers held on for a 73-66 victory over the Blue Devils at Qaundt Fieldhouse.

The victory, which assured a winning season, boosted UWSP to 7-8 in the WIAC and 13-10 overall with only a home outing against UW-River Falls on Saturday night remaining on the regular season schedule.

The loss dropped Stout, which had edged the Pointers in an earlier meeting at Menomonie, to 5-9 in the WIAC and 12-10 overall.

A late scoring burst by both teams resulted in a 31-31 halftime standoff, but UWSP went on an 11-2 run during the first 4:10 of the second half to open a 42-33 advantage which Stout was unable to overcome.

The Blue Devils, however, managed to stay within range down to the final two minutes before deadly free throw shooting by Derek Westrum, who sank five of six in the final 37.9 seconds, enabled UWSP to seal the win.

"Sometimes, especially when you go up against a team that has great offensive capabilities, it comes down to defense," said Pointer coach Jack Bennett. "It isn’t that we weren’t playing good defense in the first half and they did hit some incredible shots."

"Against a team like Stout, you can’t get into a comfort zone on defense. You have to step up your ball pressure and that’s exactly what we did."

"We also picked up our intensity by another 5 to 10 percent in the second half and that made the difference. This was a huge win for us because it clinched a winning season and kept alive our hope of finishing at the .500 mark in the conference."

Although Stout never led in the second half, the Blue Devils mounted several strong challenges, pulling to within 57-53 with 5:40 remaining on a three-point play by Ben Kuepers.

The player who really kept the Blue Devils in the game, however, was hometown product Pat Von Feldt.

The 6-1 sophomore from SPASH caught fire from long distance in the second half, scoring 13 of his 15 points during the final 20 minutes. He buried 5 of 9 shots, including 3 of 6 from beyond the arc.

"I’m glad for Pat that he played such an outstanding game but I’m also thrilled for our kids that we got the victory," Bennett said.

Stout was fortunate that Von Feldt stepped up because Leibfried, who had 10 first half points, drew a blank the rest of the way, mainly because of the defensive efforts of sophomore UWSP guard Nate Vosters. The 6-5 Preston, had just two second half baskets after scoring 15 points in the opening half.

"Liebfried was hitting shots with my hand in his face the first half," said Vosters, who also found time to contribute nine points, four assists, and four steals. "Coach told us 90 percent effort wasn’t enough and that I was playing him with my hands to high. So I tried to step up my ball pressure and really get in his face."

"There’s no question our team defense won the game. We had great execution in the second half. We got in the gaps and our help was there. We were also more patient on offense. We were able to get good shots most of the time. The difference was that, instead of playing into Stout’s hands by shooting in the first five seconds of a possession, we waited until later in the shot clock and still wound up with the same kind of shots."

With Travis Kornowski not suited up because of a bad back, Bennett went with a seven-man rotation, all of whom played between 18 and 38 minutes.

"We were fortunate that our front line people in particular were able to stay out of serious foul trouble," he said.

The Pointers shot 45 percent from the field on 24 of 53, but won the game at the foul line by converting 21 of 29, including 13 of 16 in the second half.

Other major factors in the win for UWSP were a 39-25 rebounding advantage and the defensive pressure that led to 12 steals and 19 Stout turnovers.

Junior Brant Bailey led the Pointers with 19 points and nine rebounds. Junior Gabe Frank tallied 11 of his 15 points in the second half while Westrum, who also came down with 10 rebounds, scored all 11 of his points after the break, including seven in the final 3:30.