Eagles claw past Pointers
Journal Staff

Sky walking: UW-SP's Brant Bailey (left) is fouled by Edgewood's Ryan Lanphear on his way to a slam dunk during the Pointers' loss to the Eagles at the Sentry Classic. (Journal photo by Sean O'Leary)

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men's basketball team learned a valuable lesson Wednesday night - let a team hang around you long enough and they will make you pay.

Madison's Edgewood College went toe-to-toe with the Pointers for 40 minutes and left Quandt Fieldhouse with a 69-64 victory over UW-Stevens Point.

The loss ended UW-SP's 16-game winning streak at the annual Sentry Classic and avenged a 46-37 victory by UW-SP over the Eagles earlier this season in Madison.

"I was prepared for a tough game, but I don't know if our kids were," said UW-SP coach Jack Bennett.

"I think maybe they thought that since we beat them there and now that we have them at home - and we have been playing well at home - that we should win.

"But Edgewood is a physical, quick and athletic team and I am disappointed some that we didn't meet their intensity. They hung with us and the longer they hung with us, the more they believed they could beat us and they did."

The Eagles scored their final 12 points at the free throw line as they improved to 5-7 on the season. The loss dropped UW-SP to 8-3.

Edgewood's Ryan Lanphear led all scorers with 25 points and was 10-for-10 from the free throw line. Steve Williams added 17 points and Jeremy Maier had 11 points for the Eagles.

Brant Bailey had 21 points and Brent Larson scored 17, including hitting 5-of-7 3-point shots, for the Pointers.