STEVENS POINT, Wis. – After earning its highest ranking since early 2012-13, the No. 14 UW-Stevens Point women's basketball team takes to the road for conference games at UW-Platteville and No. 20 UW-Oshkosh this week.
THE BASICS
Who: No. 14 UW-Stevens Point (11-2, 2-0 WIAC) at UW-Platteville (4-9, 1-1 WIAC)
When: Wednesday, Jan. 13 – 7 p.m.
Where: Platteville, Wis. – Bo Ryan Court
Who: No. 14 UW-Stevens Point (11-2, 2-0 WIAC) at No. 20 UW-Oshkosh (10-3, 1-1 WIAC)
When: Saturday, Jan. 16 – 3 p.m.
Where: Oshkosh, Wis. – Kolf Sports Center
FOLLOW THE GAMESLive video –
Wednesday |
SaturdayLive stats –
Wednesday |
SaturdayLAST TIME OUTUW-Stevens Point began conference play with two home victories last week by topping UW-Eau Claire 59-52 on Wednesday and No. 6 UW-Whitewater 63-56 on Saturday.
On Wednesday, the Pointers and Blugolds were tied 51-51 with 4:38 left in the fourth quarter but UW-Stevens Point scored eight of the final nine points to win its WIAC opener.
Lauren Anklam (Ringle, WI/D.C. Everest) broke the 51-51 tie with a go-ahead three-pointer and
Autumn Hennes (Kaukauna, WI/Kaukauna) led three double-figure scorers with 14 in UW-Stevens Point's 16th straight home win against UW-Eau Claire.
On Saturday, UW-Stevens Point used a 10-2 run in the fourth quarter to overcome a four-point deficit with 6:52 to go and went on to end the 12-game winning streak of the previously-unbeaten Warhawks. The Pointers shot 26-for-31 (83.9 percent) from the free-throw line, including eight consecutive free throws in the final 1:23, to outscore the Warhawks 26-6 at the charity stripe. Miceli paced the Pointers with 13 points and nine boards.
STARTING STRONGUW-Stevens Point's 2-0 start to WIAC play is the team's first since the 2011-12 season when the Pointers went on to win both the WIAC regular season and tournament titles. The Pointers 2-0 start comes in the midst of four consecutive games against teams that made last season's WIAC Tournament to start this season.
The Pointers' 11-2 start to a season and eight-game winning streak are both the program's best since the 2011-12 team started 10-0.
ANOTHER RANKED FOE ON HORIZONSaturday's game at No. 20 UW-Oshkosh will be UW-Stevens Point's sixth game against a ranked team this season and the Pointers have won four of the first five. The Pointers have won six of their last nine games against top-25 teams since losing seven consecutive games against ranked teams from Nov. 21, 2013 to Nov. 30, 2014.
The Titans have been ranked in the top 25 each of the last five meetings with the Pointers and have won four of the five games. The Pointers were ranked in one of the five meetings.
BALANCED ATTACKHennes (11.2), Anklam (10.7) and Miceli (10.5) are each averaging in double-digit points per game for UW-Stevens Point through 13 games and are on pace to become the first trio of UWSP teammates to average in double figures since Sam Barber (14.5), Ashley Averkamp (10.6) and Cassie Bandow (10.4) in 2011-12.
Six other players average between 4.1 and 4.9 points per game for UW-Stevens Point.
IN THE POLLS | D3HOOPS.COM TOP 25UW-Stevens Point made the biggest jump of any team in the top25 this week, climbing 10 spots to No. 14 in the D3hoops.com Top 25. The No. 14 ranking is the highest for the Pointers since they were ranked No. 12 in the third week of the 2012-13 season.
ABOUT UW-PLATTEVILLE | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATSUW-Platteville split its first two WIAC games of the season as part of a 4-9 start to the season. The Pioneers are coming off an 83-51 loss at No. 13 UW-Oshkosh on Saturday afternoon, a game they trailed in 45-14 at halftime. Prior to the loss to the nationally-ranked Titans, the Pioneers won their WIAC opener 66-60 at home against UW-La Crosse behind seven points in the final two minutes by Kassie Buchholz.
The Pioneers started the season 1-5, including road losses to both St. Norbert and nationally-ranked Luther, but have gone 3-4 in their last nine games. Three of UW-Platteville's four wins have come in its home court, where the Pioneers are 3-4.
Junior Elisa Bilderback leads UW-Platteville and ranks sixth in the WIAC in scoring (13.3 ppg) and also pulls in 5.4 rebounds a game. Freshman Morgan Horstman contributes 10.8 points, 5.3 boards and 2.8 assists a game and is the conference's leading freshman scorer this season.
The Pioneers lead the WIAC in blocked shots (5.15 per game) as a team, led by Allison Prestegaard's conference-high average of 2.8 per game. Prestegaard also ranks fifth in the WIAC in rebounding (7.8 rpg) and is first on the offensive glass (3.3 rpg).
ABOUT UW-OSHKOSH | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATSUW-Oshkosh opened the season by winning its first nine games before losing three in a row prior to routing UW-Platteville 83-51 on Saturday. The Titans won each of their first nine games by at least 14 points before falling to Wartburg (67-56) and No. 10 St. Thomas (67-58) at the Wartburg College Holiday Tournament on Dec. 29-30.
The Titans lost their WIAC opener 76-69 at home to UW-River Falls, which snapped UW-Oshkosh's six-game winning streak in the series. UWRF's Richell Mehus had a career-high 30 points on 12-for-18 from the field in the game. UW-Oshkosh responded with points from 14 different players in an 83-51 win over UW-Platteville on Saturday in a game the Titans led by at least 11 for the final 31:35.
Junior Taylor Schmidt is the lone Titan to average in double figures (10.2 ppg) and is shooting 51.5 percent (17-for-33) from behind the arc to lead the WIAC. Seven other players average between 5.1 and 8.5 points a game for the Titans, who rank 18th in the country in field-goal percentage (.438) and ninth in three-point shooting (.372).
UW-Oshkosh commits the fewest turnovers per game (11.5) per game, rank second nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.32) and force over seven more turnovers per game (7.23) than they commit. Senior Ashley Neustifter paces the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.13) and is second in assists (3.9 per game).
The Titans lead the WIAC in scoring defense (50.2 ppg), followed by the Pointers (54.8 ppg).
THE COACHESShirley Egner in her 27th season as the head coach at UW-Stevens Point and is the all-time winningest coach in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) history with a 499-214 (.700) career record, leaving her one victory from becoming the 17th Division III women's basketball coach to win 500 games. Over the last 14 seasons, Egner has guided the Pointers to a 319-87 record, the best mark of any WIAC team over that span. She is a four-time WIAC Coach of the Year honoree, a three-time Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division III Women's Coach of the Year (2010-12) was inducted into the WBCA Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2001-02, Egner led the Pointers to the national title and a 30-3 record to become just the eighth team in Division III history to win 30 games in a season.
Megan Wilson is in her fifth season as the head coach at UW-Platteville and has a record of 51-89 (.364) with the Pioneers. Wilson led the Pioneers to one of their best-ever seasons in 2013-14 with a 13-13 record and a four-place finish in the WIAC. As a player, Wilson played four seasons at UW-Stevens Point and was a member of the 2002 national championship team. She was also a two-time team captain at UWSP. Wilson spent four seasons as the recruiting coordinator at UW-Stevens Point from 2005-09 and the Pointers went 86-24 over that period.
This season is Brad Fischer's fourth as the UW-Oshkosh head coach and he has amassed a 79-20 (.798) winning percentage at UWO. He guided the Titans to NCAA Tournament appearances in each of the last two seasons and earned 2014 Central Region Coach of the Year honors from D3hoops.com. Prior to Fischer's arrival, UW-Oshkosh had no winning seasons and a 52-99 record from 2007-12. Fischer spent five seasons (2006-11) as the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Division II UW-Parkside and was an assistant at UW-La Crosse from 2003-06.
SERIES NOTESUW-Stevens Point owns a 55-16 lead in the all-time series against UW-Platteville. The Pioneers have won four of the last six meetings since Jan., 2014 after the Pointers won 20 in a row from Feb. 7, 2004 to Jan. 30, 2013. The Pointers have won 10 of the last 12 games in Platteville, including a 61-55 victory last season on Feb. 25, 2015 in the first round of the WIAC Tournament after the Pioneers won both regular-season meetings.
The Pointers and Titans met for the 100th time last season in a series UW-Oshkosh leads 52-48. UW-Oshkosh has claimed five of the last seven contests in the series since Feb. 6, 2013 after a string of 16 consecutive UWSP wins from Jan. 25, 2006 to Dec. 5, 2012. The Titans have won four of the last five against the Pointers in Oshkosh, including a 53-41 win on Jan. 24, 2015 after UWSP won 54-47 in Stevens Point on Jan. 10, 2015.
