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Pointers bury Whitewater
From the Stevens Point Journal

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men's basketball coach Jack Bennett compared last week's win over Lawrence University to a prize fight in which the Pointers softened up the Vikings with body shots in the first half, before putting them away with the knockout punch in the second half.

Wednesday night, the Pointers skipped the preliminaries and went straight for the first round KO as they took control from the outset and rolled to a 94-51 victory over UW-Whitewater in their Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener at Quandt Fieldhouse.

The Pointers blew the game open from the outset, racing to a 29-8 lead midway through the first half and holding a 35-point advantage - 55-20 - at halftime.

"That's the way we would like to play all the time," said UW-SP coach Jack Bennett, whose team improved to 5-1 with their fourth straight win.

"Realistically, we know that is not going to happen, but that was as good a half of basketball as we have played in a long time."

The 43-point margin of victory was the largest for UW-SP since 1993.

How good of a night was it for the Pointers?

So good that leading scorer Brant Bailey only played 20 minutes and did not lead the team in scoring for the first time this season. That honor went to freshman Josh Iserloth, who came off the bench to score 19 points.  Bailey added 16 points, Gabe Frank had 15 points and Derek Kind had 11 for UW-SP.

Whitewater (3-1, 0-1 WIAC) was led by Aubrey Lewis-Byers with 12.

The Pointers dominated all phases of the game in the first 20 minutes. Offensively, they connected on 22-of-37 shots for 59.5 percent.  Defensively, they held the Warhawks to 21.2 percent from the floor on 7-of-33 shooting. And they led rebounding battle 30-16 against the Warhawks, who started four freshman.

"They are a very athletic and very young team," Bennett said. "We wanted to make them have to make plays, not give them anything easy and we did that with good defensive positioning and by not allowing them to get any second chances."

Iserloth led the Pointers' first-half surge with 13 points. "Josh has a scorers mentality," Bennett said. "He possesses a fine outside shot for a big man and is smooth around the basket."

The Pointers kept up the defensive pressure in the second half, limiting Whitewater to just 5-of-18 field goals in the final 20 minutes. Of the Warhawks' 31 second half points, 21 came from the free throw line.  The Pointers finished the game with a rebounding edge of 44-35, led by Iserloth and Joe Zuiker with eight each. The UW-SP players were also in the > giving mood, dishing out 23 assists, led by point guard Brent Larson with eight.

"Larson directed the offense beautifully," Bennett said. "That was what we meant when we said we wanted to push the ball and open the court up more. "But they are also starting to understand the importance of being patient if it is not there. And when it is, we have kids who can finish."

The Pointers travel to UW-Eau Claire to meet the Blugolds in WIAC play Saturday at 7 p.m.