News Release

STEVENS POINT, Wis. — UW-Stevens Point overcame one of its first cold shooting nights of the season to clinch a share of its sixth Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s basketball championship in eight years by pulling out a 73-72 win over UW-Stout on Saturday at the Quandt Fieldhouse.

The Pointers shot 39.6 percent from the field and just 34.8 percent from three-point range, missing 11 straight shots from behind the arc during a 26-minute stretch of the game. However, they used a late 14-4 run and Pete Rortvedt scored 11 of his game-high 27 points in the last four minutes to pull away from a 58-56 deficit. The victory improves the Pointers to 20-2 overall and 13-1 in the WIAC. UW-Stout is 12-11 overall and 5-10 in the WIAC.

UW-Stevens Point, which is ranked second in the NCAA Division III, also sealed the top seed for the upcoming postseason conference tournament since the Pointers hold a two-game lead and the tiebreaker over second place UW-Oshkosh. The Pointers extended their league-high total with their 24th all-time conference championship.

The first four minutes of the game were contrary to the rest of the day for the Pointers, who came out red hot by hitting four of five three-point shots in the first 3:09 of the game for a quick 12-0 lead. UW-Stevens Point took its biggest lead of the game at 30-12 on a dunk by Jerome Wotachek with 7:12 left in the first half. However, they finished the half one-for-five from the field as UW-Stout closed to within 36-27 at halftime.

The Pointers clung to a small lead for most of the second half until the Blue Devils went ahead 53-52 on a three-point play by Jacob Nonemacher with 5:11 left. The teams exchanged leads four more times before UW-Stevens Point took the lead for good at 59-58 with 3:17 left on a three-pointer by Khalifa El-Amin that snapped their streak of 11 straight misses.

Rortvedt drained a three-pointer with 2:02 left in the game for a 64-60 lead and the Pointers made six straight free throws to eventually lead 70-62 with 32 seconds left. UW-Stout had just three turnovers in the second half, but two came in the final 1:21 of the game.

The Pointers, who are the top free throw shooting team in all of college basketball at 82.6 percent, missed three of six free throws in the final seconds to keep the Blue Devils alive. Rortvedt made one of two foul shots with four seconds left for a four-point lead and Jason Clopton, who scored eight of his 11 points in the last 28 seconds, banked a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to provide the one-point margin.

Steve Hicklin added 12 points and El-Amin had 10 points for the Pointers. UW-Stevens Point struggled handling the Blue Devils’ twin seven-footers as John Nonemacher had 11 points and 12 rebounds, while Jacob Nonemacher had 13 points and seven rebounds. Jerell Enerson-Matthews led UW-Stout with 14 points.