The seventh-ranked Pointers trailed the 25th-ranked Warhawks by four points with less than 10 seconds left when Jon Krull hit a three-pointer with eight seconds left following a missed free throw by UW-Whitewater’s Anthony Mlachnik.
UW-Stevens Point called timeout and fouled Mlachnik again with seven seconds remaining. The senior guard had missed only two of 15 free throws all season, but missed another front end of a bonus and the rebound caromed out of bounds to UW-Stevens Point with five seconds left. With no timeouts remaining, Pointers’ point guard Khalifa El-Amin rushed the ball upcourt and passed to Beamish, who drained the shot at the buzzer.
The Pointers are now 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, while UW-Whitewater fell to 3-3 overall and 0-2 in the WIAC.
Prior to the two missed free throws, UW-Whitewater had rebounded nine consecutive missed shots, including five on the offensive end, to rally from an 11-point deficit with less than seven minutes left. Leading 69-67, UW-Whitewater’s Rob Perry scored an offensive rebound basket to put the Warhawks ahead by four points with 1:42 left. After a basket by Pete Rortvedt pulled the Pointers back within two, Andy Freund scored a rebound basket to push the Warhawks’ lead back to 73-69 with 32 seconds remaining.
El-Amin missed a three-pointer than went out of bounds to the Warhawks for their ninth straight rebound with 21 seconds left. The Pointers only had three team fouls and fouled four straight times to get Mlachnik to the line for a bonus with 16 seconds left and set up the last-second dramatics.
UW-Whitewater led by as many as seven points in the first half, but the Pointers battled back to pull within 40-39 at halftime. UW-Stevens Point held the Warhawks without a field goal for nearly six minutes early in the second half and led 52-48 with 11:36 left after Perry broke the dry spell with a jumper in the lane.
The teams traded baskets before the Pointers went on a 6-0 run for a 60-50 with 8:21 remaining. After Freund scored for the Warhawks, Pete Rortvedt hit a three-pointer with 7:15 left to give the Pointers their biggest lead at 63-52.
Jason Price hit two three-pointers for UW-Whitewater to spark a 10-0 run and bring the Warhawks within 63-62 and later hit another three-pointer for a 67-65 lead with 3:14 remaining. Price came off the bench to lead the Warhawks with 21 points and Perry had 14 as reserves scored 41 of the team’s 73 points. Freund led the starters with 16 points.
Krull had 23 points and six assists to lead the Pointers, while Beamish had 14 points and Rortvedt scored 13 points. Both teams were red-hot from field as the Pointers shot 54.4 percent for the game and UW-Whitewater shot 52.0 percent.