STEVENS POINT, Wis. – After opening its season with a road win, the ninth-ranked UW-Stevens Point men's basketball team takes to its home court for the first time by hosting a pair of top-25 teams in St. Olaf and Hope this week.

THE BASICS
Who: No. 15 St. Olaf (1-0) at No. 9 UW-Stevens Point (1-0)
When: Wednesday, Nov. 18 – 7 p.m.
Where: Stevens Point, Wis. – Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse

Who: No. 16 Hope (0-0) at No. 9 UW-Stevens Point (1-0)
When: Saturday, Nov. 21 – 7 p.m.
Where: Stevens Point, Wis. – Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse

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ABOUT UW-STEVENS POINT | HOME | ROSTER | SCHDEULE | STATS

LAST TIME OUT
Seniors Stephen Pelkofer (Hales Corner, WI/Whitnall) and Sean McGann (Baraboo, WI/Baraboo) combined for 38 points as ninth-ranked UW-Stevens Point opened its season with a 69-61 win at UW-Superior on Saturday evening at Mertz Mortorelli Gym. Pelkofer logged the first double-double of his career, finishing with 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, while McGann added 18 points and five rebounds.

The Pointers built a 30-16 lead with 5:30 remaining in the first half after a 16-3 run that spanned 4:40 and led by as many as 16 late in the first half. However, UW-Superior got within six at 41-35 with 14:41 remaining in the second half but could get no closer than that the rest of the way, as UWSP recorded its 27th consecutive win in the series and won its 19th consecutive season opener.

HOME OPENERS
UW-Stevens Point has won its last 20 home openers by an average of over 25 points per game. The Pointers' last loss in a home opener was a 77-75 setback to Valley City State (ND) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) on Nov. 20, 1994.

HOME SWEET HOME
Since 1997, UW-Stevens Point is 245-35 (.875) at Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse. The last season the Pointers lost more than two home games was 2001-02, when UWSP was 10-4 at home.
Since 2002-03, the Pointers are 177-17 (.912) on their home court. Last season, UW-Stevens Point was 14-2 at home, including wins in its first four NCAA Tournament games on its way to the national title.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Pelkofer's double-double was the eighth by a UW-Stevens Point player since the start of the 2013-14 season and all eight double-doubles were in points and rebounds. He becomes the sixth player in the same time span to record a double-double, joining Alex Richard (Spring Green, WI/River Valley), Joe Ritchay (Wisconsin Rapids, WI/Lincoln), Trevor Hass, Clayton Heuer and Tyler Tillema. Ritchay and Heuer each had two double-doubles in that span. The Pointers won all eight games over the last two-plus seasons in which a UWSP player had a double-double.

OWNING NOVEMBER
UW-Stevens Point is 75-5 (.938) in its last 80 games in the month of November since the 1996-97 season. Last season, the Pointers were 3-2 in November, falling 70-69 at St. Olaf on Nov. 19 and 63-56 at home to North Central (Ill.) on Nov. 29. The home setback to North Central last season is UWSP's only home loss in the month of November since 1996-97 (40-1).

UWSP  VS. RANKED OPPONENTS
UW-Stevens Point is 31-16 against ranked teams since the 2007-08 season, including a 16-5 mark at home. The Pointers have won 12 of their last 13 home games against ranked teams since 2010. The Pointers were 6-2 against ranked teams last season, including wins in their last five games.

ABOUT ST. OLAF | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
St. Olaf used a balanced offensive attack to open its season with an 82-53 victory over visiting Bethany Lutheran last Friday at the Skoglund Center. The Oles got 17 points each from seniors Riley Aeikens, Justin Pahl and Ben Figini. Figini also added 10 rebounds for a double-double. The Vikings trailed by just six points late in the first half but the Oles went on an 18-0 run on either side of halftime to open up a 24-point advantage.

This season, the Oles return nine letterwinners from last seasons' team that made the third round of the NCAA Tournament and set a school record with 23 wins (23-6). St. Olaf defeated Ohio Wesleyan 90-78 and Defiance 68-63 to advance to the third round before falling 79-72 to Marietta after leading by a dozen in the second half. St. Olaf was 16-4 in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play, which was good for second in the conference, one game behind St. Thomas.

Figini, Pahl and Aeikens were three of St. Olaf's top-four scorers last season. Figini led the Oles by averaging 16.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Pahl was second in scoring at 13.4 points per game and led the team with 56 made three-pointers, while Aeikens chipped in 9.9 points and 4.7 rebounds a game. Figini and Pahl were All-MIAC selections a year ago, while Aeikens was an honorable mention pick.

Ten of the 15 players on St. Olaf's 2015-16 roster stand 6'4" or taller and seven are listed at 6'6" or taller.

St. Olaf opens the season ranked No. 15 by D3hoops.com after closing last season ranked No. 16. The No. 15 ranking matches the highest in program history. The Oles were as high as No. 15 in the country in weeks 11 and 12 of last season.

The Oles averaged the third-fewest fouls in the country last season (13.4 per game), led the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.67) and committed the fourth-fewest turnovers per game (8.9) in 2014-15.

ABOUT HOPE | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS ('14-15)
Hope opens its season at UW-La Crosse on Friday night prior to facing the Pointers on Saturday night. The Flying Dutchmen finished 2014-15 with an 18-9 overall record, including a 10-4 mark in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) play for a second-place conference finish. Hope was edged by rival Calvin 70-69 in the MIAA Tournament Championship game, as the Knights' hit a jumper with five seconds remaining to take their only lead of the game.

The Flying Dutchmen return their top eight scorers and all five starters from last season's team, including four double-digit scorers in Brock Benson (12.9 ppg), Harrison Blackledge (12.7 ppg), Ben Gardner (11.6 ppg) and Alex Eidson (10.7 ppg). Benson and Blackledge combined to average 25.6 points and 12.2 rebounds a game on 61.2 percent shooting a year ago and were both First Team All-MIAA selections, while Gardner was a second team pick. In total, Hope returns 88.2 percent of its scoring from last season.

Hope is ranked one spot behind St. Olaf at No. 16 in the D3hoops.com preseason poll after being unranked at the end of last season.  The Flying Dutchmen are the preseason pick to win the MIAA in 2015-16 and received six of seven first-place votes in the league's preseason poll.

Hope does not have a freshman on its 2015-16 roster, which consists of five seniors, seven juniors and two sophomores.

Last season, the Flying Dutchmen ranked third in the nation in free-throw percentage (79.9 percent) and their 504 made free throws was the 13th-most in the country.

THE COACHES
Bob Semling is in his 11th season as the head coach at UW-Stevens Point and has won four national championships with the Pointers. He led the Pointers to the 2010 and 2015 national championships as a head coach and was an assistant on the back-to-back national title teams of 2004 and 2005. Semling has a career record of 242-54 (.818), including a 134-26 mark in WIAC play. His .818 career winning percentage is the highest among active NCAA Division III coaches and ranks fourth all-time at all divisions among coaches with a minimum of 10 seasons as head coach. He is a two-time D3hoops.com and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) National Coach of the Year (2010 and 2015) and a five-time WIAC Coach of the Year.

The 2015-16 season is Dan Kosmoski's 22nd as the head coach at St. Olaf. Prior to the 2013-14 season, St. Olaf had never made the NCAA Tournament but Kosmoski has led the Oles to back-to-back NCAA berths, including the program's first-ever trip to the Sweet 16 last season. He has a career record of 258-272 at St. Olaf but the Oles have compiled a 45-11 mark in the last two seasons. Kosmoski guided the Oles to their first MIAC Playoff title in 2013-14 and his teams have qualified for the conference's postseason in four of the past five seasons.

Greg Mitchell is the 11th head coach in program history at Hope and in his second season at the helm of the Flying Dutchmen.  He guided Hope to an 18-9 record and a second-place finish in the MIAA last season. The 1989 Hope graduate played four seasons of basketball for the Flying Dutchmen and was part of two MIAA championship teams and three NCAA Division III Tournament qualifiers. His teams went 74-27 during his playing career and Mitchell still holds Hope's career three-point percentage record at 46.4 percent. Mitchell spent the past 25 years coaching at Laingsburg High School near Lansing, Mich. and compiled a 362-201 record.

SERIES NOTES
UW-Stevens Point leads the all-time series with St. Olaf 3-1 since the teams first met in 2011. The Pointers won the first three meetings before the Oles edged the seventh-ranked Pointers 70-69 in Northfield, Minn. last season on Nov. 19, 2014. Pahl made the second of two free throws with three seconds remaining to give St. Olaf the win after Joe Ritchay (Wisconsin Rapids, WI/Lincoln) had made one of two free throws to tie the game with 10 seconds to go.

UW-Stevens Point and Hope had never met prior to 2013 but have met each of the last two seasons with the Pointers winning both matchups. Last season, McGann scored 17 points off the bench to lead five Pointers in double figures as No. 7 UWSP picked up a 77-66 win in Holland, Mich. on Nov. 22, 2014. The Pointers won the first meeting 82-62 on Nov. 23, 2013 at home behind 29 points, five rebounds and five assists from Tyler Tillema.