MENOMONIE - The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men's basketball team wrapped up a
share of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season title and the
No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with a 67-54 victory over UW-Stout on Wednesday.
Brant Bailey scored a game-high 27 points and Brent Larson added 13 points and seven
assists as the Pointers, ranked 13th in the Division III national poll, overcame a slow
start to improve to 13-2 in the WIAC and 18-4 overall.
The Pointers can clinch the conference title outright with a victory at River Falls on
Saturday.
"This is special, a huge moment for us," said UW-SP coach Jack Bennett, whose
team was picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll of WIAC sports information
directors.
"This is an unexpected pleasure for this program. Tonight was the harder of the two
games we had left - harder than Saturday (at River Falls). This is the one everyone said
we had to have. We didn't want to stumble here and then go into River Falls knowing we had
to win to win the title. Now we have the championship and nobody can take that away from
us."
The Pointers hold a one-game lead in the standings over UW-Eau Claire, but clinched the
top seed in the tournament by virtue of Platteville's victory over Superior. The best the
Blugolds could hope for would be a tie with the Pointers for the top spot in the league.
Since the teams split in head-to-head play, the second tie breaker is how they fared
against the No. 3 team - Platteville. The Pointers swept the Pioneers, who swept Eau
Claire.
