Men's Basketball.... Whitewater Fall to #2 UW-Stevens Point
UW-Stevens Point, ranked second in the D3hoops.com national poll, defeated UW-Whitewater 83-80 Wednesday evening in Kachel Gym in Williams Center.
Whitewater led 40-35 at halftime. With the game tied 58-58 at 10:50, the Pointers built a 73-63 lead over the next five minutes. Whitewater came back to within three, 81-78, with 25 seconds left when Anthony Mlachnik made all three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt. UW-SP's Drew Jackson (so, Milwaukee) hit two free throws with sixteen seconds left to make it 83-78 and Josh King's layup with six seconds left made it 83-80. Point's Steve Hicklin missed a free throw with five seconds left and UW-W's desperation three failed as time ran out. The game was tied four times, and the lead changed hands four times, in the second half.
Stevens Point was led by Pete Rortvedt's (so, Minocqua/Lakeland) 35 points. Rortvedt hit 7 of 11 three point shots. Hicklin (jr, Sussex) added 21 points and Jon Krull (sr, Marshall) had 13. Junior guard Jason Price (Milwaukee/Washington) led UW-W with 26 points, hitting 5 of 8 threes. Senior center Mike Toellner had 15 points and senior guard Craig Anderson contributed 12.
Both teams shot better than 40% from beyond the arc, UW-SP hit 46% and UW-W 44%. Whitewater had a 37-28 rebound advantage, led by senior guard Giovanni Riley's game high eight rebounds. Whitewater had 15 turnovers and Stevens Point 5.
UW-Whitewater is now 14-8 overall and 7-6 in the WIAC, and UW-Stevens Point improves to 19-2 overall and a league best 12-1 in the WIAC. Despite the loss Whitewater remains in fourth place in the WIAC.
The Warhawks' next game will be Saturday, February 10th at UW-River Falls at 1:00. UW-Whitewater's next home game is on
Wednesday, February 14th at 7:00.
For additional information:
Pat Miller, UW-W coach, 262-472-1146
UW-W men's basketball site: www.uww.edu/athletics/mbasketball
WIAC men's basketball site: http://www.uwsa.edu/wiac/mbasket/index.html
WIAC men's basketball site: www.uwsa.edu/wiac/mbasket
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