The Pointers, who won national titles in their two most recent appearances in 2004 and 2005, made 14 of their last 17 first half shots to ride a 48-29 lead into halftime in front of a vocal Quandt Fieldhouse crowd of 2,504. UW-Stevens Point, the nation’s top-ranked team, is now 26-2 overall and moves onto the sectional tournament where it will face Washington University (Mo.) on Friday at a site to be determined. Hope (Mich.) takes on Carroll (Wis.) in the other matchup. St. John’s closed its season at 21-8 overall.
All five UW-Stevens Point starters scored in double figures for the second straight game with sophomore point guard Khalifa El-Amin tallying a career-high 18 points. Steve Hicklin also scored 18 points and knocked down four of five three-point shot attempts for the Pointers.
UW-Stevens Point got off to a slow start, making just four of its first 17 shots. However, the Pointers were still within two points at 14-12 with 12:32 left in the first half when they caught fire. Pete Rortvedt hit a short jumper and a three-pointer to start the shooting barrage for the Pointers. The game was later tied at 21-21 when Hicklin knocked down a three-pointer to start a 7-0 run and the Pointers never trailed again.
Leading 31-26 with 5:55 left in the half, UW-Stevens Point scored the next 15 points until the Johnnies finally got a three-pointer from Ryan Lieser with 37 seconds left in the half to stifle the run. El-Amin drove the lane for a layup with seven seconds left as the Pointers took the 19-point halftime advantage.
“They just got on a roll and we couldn’t stop it,” St. John’s coach Jim Smith said. “If we’d have had just a little more patience during that run we might have been okay.”
Despite their sluggish start, the Pointers finished the first half at 52.9 percent from the field and shot 54.2 percent for the game, including 12-for-24 from three-point range.
St. John’s threatened to rally several times in the second half as the Johnnies used a 9-0 run to close within 62-48 with 12:50 remaining. In fact, St. John’s cut the deficit to 12 points at four different times in the second half, but UW-Stevens Point answered with a basket every time, including a three-pointer on three occasions.
“That’s a team with a lot of character,” UW-Stevens Point coach Bob Semling said of the Johnnies. “They had 20 minutes left and they were not going to go down easy.”
“We made some big plays down the stretch,” Hicklin added. “We came up with the plays when we needed to like we have all season long.”
St. John’s shot 55.2 percent in the second half and finished the game 11-for-22 from three-point range. Matt Ohme led the second half attack with 18 of his game-high 20 points after halftime. Lieser added 19 points for the Johnnies.
“Sometimes when people get our attention we take it to a higher level,” Semling said. “That’s the sign of a good team and you need that to be successful.”
The Pointers also showed off their balance as Rortvedt added 17 points, Jon Krull had 15 and Bryan Beamish had 12 points. Drew Jackson came off the bench with eight points. All five starters also had at least three assists.