Gusties Start Slow, But Finish Strong to Defeat Pointers

    After the first nine and a half minutes of Saturday�s NCAA Division III men�s basketball second round contest, it looked like another typical performance for the UW-Stevens Point men�s basketball team.

    However, it didn�t take long for Gustavus Adolphus to turn in one of its usual efforts and pull out a 75-62 win over the home Pointers and advance to their fifth sectional tournament in eight years. The Gusties will take on Hanover (Ind.) in the sectional tournament on Friday at a site to be determined.

    The Gusties, who rank 14th in Division III in field goal percentage, started slow by hitting just two of their first 12 shots and falling behind 14-4 against the Pointers, who rank third nationally in field goal percentage defense.

    However, Gustavus Adolphus went on an 18-5 run to take a lead of 22-19 while hitting 13 of its next 16 shots during a span stretching into the second half.

    The Gusties� hot shooting put them up 40-36 with 15:43 left in the game before UW-Stevens Point finally started to catch fire again. The Pointers got two three-pointers from Nick Bennett to spark a 9-0 run and take a 45-40 lead with 13:21 left.

     But again Gustavus Adolphus answered, scoring nine straight points of its own after trailing 50-48 with 9:50 left. Eric Nelson tied the game at 50-50 and Tim Brown followed with his third three-pointer of the game for a 53-50 lead. Brett Boese scored a breakaway layup and Derek Nelson scored another layup for a 57-50 advantage with 7:29 left.

     After Josh Iserloth�s breakaway dunk with 5:45 left brought the Pointers to within 59-54, the Pointers made just one of their final 10 shots.

     Gustavus Adolphus, meanwhile, never cooled off. The Gusties shot 63 percent in the second half and finished the game shooting 55.8 percent. Take out the two-for-12 start and the Gusties shot 67.5 percent the rest of the way. Gustavus Adolphus also had a similar performance from the free throw line, missing its first five of the game, but shooting 12-for-15 the rest of the game to seal the win.

      Brown was seven-for-11 from the field and finished with 20 points to lead four players in double figures. Boese had 11 points and 13 rebounds for the Gusties.

      Bennett led the Pointers with 18 points, while Josh Iserloth had 15 points to finish his career with 1,552 points and rank fourth on the school�s all-time scoring list.