STEVENS POINT, Wis. – After 10 days without a game, the seventh-ranked UW-Stevens Point men's basketball team returns to action with a rematch of last season's national championship game at No. 1 Augustana (Ill.) on Saturday evening.

THE BASICS
Who: No. 7 UW-Stevens Point (3-1) at No. 1 Augustana (3-0)
When: Saturday, Dec. 5 – 7 p.m.
Where: Rock Island, Ill. – Carver Center

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LAST TIME OUT
Zack Goedeke (Valders, WI/Valders) scored a game and career-high 26 points and added seven rebounds in his first-career start to power then-No. 9 UW-Stevens Point to a 65-61 come-from-behind win over St. Norbert on Tuesday, Nov. 24 at Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse. The sophomore was 10-for-15 from the field in the first regular-season meeting between the two programs since 1992.

UW-Stevens Point trailed St. Norbert 40-31 with 16:43 remaining in the game before embarking on a 12-0 run over a stretch of 5:26 to take a 43-40 lead, the Pointers' first lead since 8-7 six minutes into the game. A layup by Goedeke and a pair of free throws by Sean McGann (Baraboo, WI/Baraboo) put the Pointers up 64-59 with 28 seconds remaining and UWSP's defense made the lead stand.

RARE REMATCH
Saturday evening's game will mark the first national championship game rematch in Division III men's basketball since the 2001-02 season when William Paterson defeated Catholic 71-67 on Nov. 16, 2001. That meeting was the first game of the 2001-02 season for both teams after Catholic topped William Paterson 76-62 in the 2001 national title game.

GOEDEKE STEPS UP
Goedeke's 26-point outing against St. Norbert marked the second game in a row in which the sophomore set a career-high in scoring after he had 17 on Saturday, Nov. 21 against Hope. The back-to-back strong outings have seen Goedeke's scoring average rise from 1.5 to 11.5 points per game.

After totaling 29 points in 154 minutes over his first 22 collegiate games, Goedeke has 43 points in 59 minutes of action in the last two contests.

WINNING THE CLOSE ONES
All four of UW-Stevens Point's games this season have been decided by eight points or less, as the Pointers have outscored their opponents 259-255 through four games. Since the start of the 2011-12 season, UWSP is 32-13 in games decided by 10 points or less, including a mark of 17-12 in games with a margin of five points or less.

UWSP VS. RANKED TEAMS
On Saturday, UW-Stevens Point will face its third ranked opponent already this season. The Pointers topped No. 15 St. Olaf 68-65 on Nov. 18 and fell 68-56 to No. 16 Hope on Nov. 21. Both of those contests were at home.

The Pointers are 32-17 (.623) against ranked opposition since the start of the 2007-08 season. Over the same span, UWSP is 18-11 against top-10 teams, including three consecutive wins against teams in the top 10.

300 FOR SEMLING
UW-Stevens Point's 66-61 win over St. Norbert in its last game was Bob Semling's 300th game as UWSP's head coach. Semling has won 245 of his first 300 games at UW-Stevens Point, leaving him five victories shy of becoming the 10th coach in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) history to achieve 250 career wins. His 201st career win on Jan. 11, 2014 made Semling the winningest coach in program history.

IN THE POLLS
In the first poll of the regular season, UW-Stevens Point rose two spots to No. 7 in this week's D3hoops.com Men's Top 25. The Pointers have been ranked in the top 25 for 47 consecutive weeks and have been inside the top 10 for six-straight polls. UWSP has been ranked in 136 of the last 138 weeks since the start of the 2006-07 season.

ABOUT AUGUSTANA | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
Augustana has opened its season with three 20-plus point victories and is coming off a 75-55 win at UW-Whitewater on Wednesday evening. On Wednesday, the Vikings trailed the Warhawks 29-28 at halftime but shot 17-for-25 (68.0 percent) from the field in the second half to cruise to the win. Griffin Pils and Ben Ryan each had 18 points in the win, while Tayvian Johnson added 13 points and 10 boards.

The Vikings have all five starters back from last season's national runner-up team, led by senior point guard and 2014 D3hoops.com Second Team All-America pick Hunter Hill, who is averaging 14.7 points a game. Ryan was a third team all-region selection last year and leads Augustana in scoring (15.3 ppg) and rebounding (5.3 rpg).

Johnson and Jacob Johnston give Augustana four players who average in double figures. Johnson contributes 11.3 points and 5.7 rebounds a game, while Johnston chips in 10.0 points per game off the bench. Each of the four double-figure scorers is shooting over 54 percent from the field for the Vikings, who average 81.0 points a game and have scored at least 75 in all three wins.

Prior to the win over UW-Whitewater, the Vikings ranked ninth in the country in scoring defense (58.5 ppg) and were second in scoring margin (+25.5). After Wednesday, Augustana's scoring defense now allows 57.3 points a game and the Vikings have outscored their opponents by nearly 24 points a game (23.7 ppg). Augustana also ranks in the top 10 nationally in rebounding margin (+15.0).

Augustana opened the season as the No. 1 team in the country in three national polls, including the D3hoops.com poll where they received 23 of 25 first-place votes, and are the unanimous No. 1 team in the country in this week's D3hoops.com poll. The Vikings are also the preseason favorite in the CCIW, gathering six of eight first-place votes to finish ahead of Elmhurst.

The Vikings are 23-2 in their last 25 home games since the start of the 2013-14 season. Augustana was 13-2 at home last season, losing close games to a North Central team that topped the Pointers early in the season and an Illinois Wesleyan team that UWSP defeated in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

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 245-55 (.816), including a 134-26 mark in WIAC play. His .818 career winning percentage entering this season was 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 Grey Giovanine's 17th year at the helm of Augustana Vikings men's basketball. Giovanine's career record at Augustana sits at 314-121 (.722). In the victory at UW-Whitewater, Giovanine tied Jim Borcherding for the most wins in program history. Giovanine has led the Vikings to six regular season and four postseason tournament championships in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW). He came to Augustana in April of 1999 after leading NCAA Division I Lamar to three consecutive winning seasons for the first time in over a decade, including a 17-11 mark in his final season of 1998-99.

SERIES NOTES
Saturday evening's showdown will be the sixth meeting between UW-Stevens Point and Augustana. All five previous meetings have come since the 2006-07 season and the Pointers have won four of the five.

UW-Stevens Point has won the last two games against Augustana, including the win in last season's national championship game. The Vikings' lone win in the series was a 69-64 win on their home court in Dec. 10, 2011, giving the Pointers a 1-1 record in games in Rock Island.

The five previous meetings have been decided by an average of 8.4 points per game and three have been decided by eight points or less. Three of the five meetings have occurred with both teams ranked inside the top 10 and UWSP has won all three.