News Release

OSHKOSH, Wis. — The UW-Stevens Point men’s basketball team found itself in a familiar, yet undesirable, position on Saturday in its regular season finale at UW-Oshkosh.

Just like last season, the Pointers had by far their coldest shooting performance of the season in the final game and dropped to the second seed for the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament with a 74-59 loss to the Titans, setting up a quarterfinal game with UW-Superior for the second straight year. The defending national champion and top-ranked Pointers are now 21-3 overall and will host the Yellowjackets in the first round for the second straight year. The quarterfinal game is set for Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Quandt Fieldhouse.

UW-Platteville earned a share of the WIAC title by virtue of the Pointers’ loss and also gained the top seed because of the league’s tiebreaker procedure of record against teams in descending order in the standings and its sweep of UW-Whitewater.

The Pointers shot just 31.6 percent for just their second game below 40 percent this season and first time under 37 percent. The performance was eerily reminiscent of last year when the Pointers had their only below 40 percent effort of the year in the final regular season game by shooting 31.7 percent in a loss to UW-Superior. It was the Pointers’ lowest shooting percentage since making 30.8 percent in a win against Edgewood on Nov. 27, 1999.

UW-Stevens Point opened the game with one of its only hot shooting stretches of the night, hitting four of its first seven shots as Jason Kalsow and Nick Bennett hit back-to-back three-pointers for a 10-2 lead.

UW-Oshkosh came back to tie the game at 12-12 before Kyle Grusczynski hit two three-pointers to put UW-Stevens Point back ahead 20-15 with 11:23 left. However, the Pointers made just one of their next seven shots and Jim Capelle and Andy Jahnke hit consecutive three-pointers to cap a 13-3 run and put the Titans ahead and in control at 28-23.

Eric Maus hit a layup to pull the Pointers within 31-27 with 5:57 left, but it was UW-Stevens Point’s last field goal of the half as UW-Oshkosh went on a 12-3 run and eventually led 43-32 at halftime. The point total was nearly as many as the Titans had in the entire game in the first meeting with the Pointers in a 69-44 loss.

Kalsow opened the second half with a three-pointer for the Pointers, but the eight-point deficit was the closest UW-Stevens Point came the rest of the way as Jahnke answered with a three-pointer on the ensuing possession and the Pointers shot just 25 percent after halftime.

UW-Stevens Point cut the lead to nine points twice in the final two minutes, however, UW-Oshkosh made its final 10 free throw attempts of the game to snap a five-game losing streak to the Pointers.

Jahnke finished with 24 points after scoring just five points against the Pointers in the first meeting. Kerry Gibson added 17 points and nine rebounds, while Andy Fernholz had 13 points and six assists. Kalsow led the Pointers with 23 points and Bennett had 12 points.