News Release

STEVENS POINT, Wis. — UW-Stevens Point opened defense of its back-to-back NCAA Division III championships and extended several streaks in the process in posting a 69-54 win over Cardinal Stritch on Friday at the Quandt Fieldhouse.

The Pointers have now won 10 straight season openers and extended their home winning streak to 23 straight. The victory also marked UW-Stevens Point’s 44th consecutive regular season non-conference win.

Freshman Pete Rortvedt gave the Pointers a big lift to open the game in his first collegiate start, hitting all three of his three-point shot attempts in the first 5:18 of the game as UW-Stevens Point opened up a 12-4 lead. Cardinal Stritch, an NAIA school playing its fifth game of the season, hung close with the Pointers and trailed 19-18 with nine minutes left in the first half when UW-Stevens Point went on an 8-0 run as the Wolves had turnovers on four of their next five possessions.

Jon Krull and Khalifa El-Amin combined to score the Pointers’ next 14 points as UW-Stevens Point went ahead 33-22 with 3:59 remaining in the half.

After leading 36-25 at halftime, UW-Stevens Point scored the first seven points of the second half to build an 18-point lead. The Pointers pushed the lead to 19 points at 49-30 with 14:45 left when the Wolves scored nine straight points to trail by 10. They cut the lead to nine points at 57-48 with 4:14 remaining when Steve Hicklin drained a three-pointer to put the Pointers up 60-48.

Cardinal Stritch did not make a three-pointer in the game, but attempted 35 free throws compared to 12 for UW-Stevens Point. In fact, the Wolves had all of the first 18 free throw attempts by either team in the second half.

Krull led the Pointers with 19 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Rortvedt finished four-for-four from three-point range and totaled 14 points. Brian Bauer had 12 points and nine rebounds. Freshmen combined to play 63 of the Pointers’ 200 minutes in the game. UW-Stevens Point shot 10-for-24 from three-point range and finished with 16 turnovers, which was more than the team had in any game all of last season.

Ronald Bell led Cardinal Stritch with 20 points and Angelo Santos added 13 points.