STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The UW-Stevens Point men's basketball team looks to build on a two-point win over second-place UW-La Crosse on Saturday with a home game against UW-Stout on Wednesday, before heading to UW-Oshkosh on Saturday.

THE BASICS
Who: UW-Stout (4-12, 0-6 WIAC) at UW-Stevens Point (9-8, 2-4 WIAC)
When: Wednesday, Jan. 27 – 7 p.m.
Where: Stevens Point, Wis. – Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse

Who: UW-Stevens Point (9-8, 2-4 WIAC) at UW-Oshkosh (11-6, 4-2 WIAC)
When: Saturday, Jan. 30 – 3 p.m.
Where: Oshkosh, Wis. – Kolf Sports Center

FOLLOW THE GAMES
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LAST TIME OUT
UW-Stevens Point defeated UW-La Crosse 69-67 at home on Saturday night after going down 56-48 at UW-River Falls on Wednesday evening.

With the Pointers down 66-64, Mark Nelson (Madison, WI/Monona Grove) drained a three-pointer from in front of the UWSP bench with 59 seconds remaining to put the hosts up one. After UW-La Crosse's Devin Yurk made one of two free throws to tie the game, Sean McGann (Baraboo, WI/Baraboo) was fouled in the act of shooting with 15 seconds on the clock and calmly hit both free throws. The Eagles had two shots to tie it on their final possession but neither went down.

On Wednesday, UW-River Falls held UW-Stevens Point to five points in the final 6:38 to defeat the Pointers 56-48. Garrett Pearson scored five of his 13 points in the final six-plus minutes for the Falcons, who led by just two, 45-43, with 6:38 to go. Ethan Bublitz (Jackson, WI/Kettle Moraine Lutheran) led the Pointers with 10 points and five rebounds. UW-River Falls held a 42-28 advantage on the glass in the game.

ABOUT UW-STEVENS POINT | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
After starting WIAC play 0-2, UW-Stevens Point has split its last four conference games. The Pointers sit just two games out of second place in the conference standings, as six of the WIAC's eight teams have records between 2-4 and 4-2. UW-Stevens Point is 5-3 on its home court this season, compared to 2-5 on the road.

CLOSE ONES IN THE WIAC
All six of UW-Stevens Point's conference games this season have been decided by eight points or fewer. The six games have been decided by an average of 4.7 points, as the six have been decided by a total of 28 points.

The Pointers are one of five WIAC teams to have a scoring margin between -3.5 and +3.5 in conference play this season: UW-River Falls (+3.5), UW-Whitewater (+3.0), UW-Platteville (-2.5), UW-Stevens Point (-3.0), UW-Eau Claire (-3.3).

ON THE OFFENSIVE END
UW-Stevens Point's 69 points in Saturday's win over UW-La Crosse matched the team's second-highest output of the season and was the team's highest total in eight games. The Pointers scored a season-high 82 points in a win at Edgewood on Dec. 22 and also scored 69 in a season-opening win at UW-Superior.

The Pointers shot 46.8 percent from the field against the Eagles, the best percentage for the team since the Edgewood game. UWSP's nine three-pointers matched the team's second-highest total this season and the team shot over 40 percent from behind the arc for the sixth time.

GETTING IN THE MIX
Nelson averaged 8.0 points and 7.0 rebounds for UW-Stevens Point last week and played 23.0 minutes a game over the two games. He set career highs in scoring (10), rebounding (8) and minutes (27) against UW-La Crosse after having six points and six boards in 19 minutes at UW-River Falls.

Prior to last week, the freshman had played a total of 68 minutes over 10 games and had totaled 12 points and seven rebounds.

ABOUT UW-STOUT | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
UW-Stout comes to Stevens Point with a 4-12 overall record and has lost all six of its conference games. Three of the Blue Devils' six WIAC losses are by six points or fewer. In non-conference play, UW-Stout posted an 82-74 road win over the University of Dubuque, an NCAA Tournament team last season, on Dec. 8. The Blue Devils opened their season their season with an exhibition at Division I UW-Green Bay, falling 95-41.

Last week, UW-Stout fell 63-57 at home to UW-La Crosse in overtime on Wednesday and 67-42 at UW-Oshkosh on Saturday. The Blue Devils led the Eagles by as many as eight in the second half but were unable to hold on and were outscored 11-5 in overtime. UW-Oshkosh held UW-Stout to 17.2 percent shooting in the first half to take a 37-12 halftime lead before an even second half.

UW-Stout is seventh in the WIAC in both scoring offense (65.1 ppg) and scoring defense (71.6 ppg). The Blue Devils have outrebounded their opponents by nearly three rebounds (+2.9) a game, are third in the conference in rebounding (36.8 rpg) and lead the way on the offensive glass (11.7 per game). UW-Stout is also second in the conference in assists (12.6 apg).

Sophomore John Keefe paces the Blue Devils and ranks 10th in the WIAC in scoring (13.2 ppg), while also leading the conference in assists (4.3 apg) by nearly one assist a game. He also ranks second in the WIAC in steals, averaging 1.75 steals per outing. Keefe is the only UW-Stout player to average in double figures but four other players average between 6.3 and 8.1 points per game.

ABOUT UW-OSHKOSH | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
UW-Oshkosh enters the week tied for second place in the WIAC with a UW-La Crosse with a 4-2 conference record and is one game behind conference-leading UW-River Falls. The Titans are 11-6 overall and have won four of their last five after opening WIAC play with a one-point overtime loss at UW-River Falls.

Last week, the Titans cruised to a 37-12 halftime lead in a 67-42 home win over UW-Stout on Saturday after falling 66-60 at home to UW-Whitewater. Alex Olson scored a season-high 27 points, going over the 1,000-point milestone for his career, in the win over the Blue Devils. He scored the first 14 points for the Titans and finished 10-for-12 from the field and 6-for-8 from three-point range. UW-Oshkosh led UW-Whitewater 38-28 at the half but was outscored 38-22 after the break.

UW-Oshkosh leads the WIAC in scoring margin (+9.7) and ranks second in the conference in both scoring offense (73.8 ppg) and defense (64.1 ppg). The Titans are the top three-point shooting team in the WIAC at 39.4 percent and their top-three scorers all shoot at least 39.0 percent from behind the arc. UW-Oshkosh also averages a conference-best 8.2 three-pointers a game.

Olson leads the Titans in scoring at 12.9 points per game and is joined in double figures by Charlie Noone (11.8 ppg) and Ben Boots (11.5 ppg). Boots, the leading freshman scorer in the WIAC, leads the conference in free-throw percentage (.829) and is third in three-point percentage (.468), while Noone makes a conference-high 2.41 threes per outing.

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 national titles in 2010 and 2015 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 251-62 (.802), including a 136-30 (.819) mark in WIAC play. His .818 career winning percentage entering this season was the highest among active Division III coaches and ranks fourth all-time among all divisions for coaches with at least 10 seasons as a head coach.

Eddie Andrist is the longest-tenured men's basketball coach in the WIAC and is in his 16th season at UW-Stout. He has a 190-211 (.471) career record with the Blue Devils. In 41 years of coaching, Andrist has coached an 1,197 high school and collegiate games, including 1,036 games as a head coach. The Blue Devils are two years removed from a 20-7 record and have won double-digit games in 11 of Andrist's 15 prior seasons.

This season is Pat Juckem's fourth at the helm of the UW-Oshkosh men's basketball program and has a career record of 46-50 (.479). The Titans have improved their record in each season under Juckem. Since going 7-18 in 2012-13, UW-Oshkosh improved to 12-14 in 2013-14 and 16-12 a year ago. Juckem was the head coach at Coe from 2006-12 and led the Kohawks to an overall record of 105-79 (.571) and two Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) championships.

SERIES NOTES
UW-Stevens Point leads the all-time series with UW-Stout 101-55. The Pointers have won six in a row and 10 of the last 11 in the series. The lone Blue Devil win in the last 11 meetings was a 67-64 win in Stevens Point on Feb. 15, 2012. Prior to that game, the Blue Devils had not won in Stevens Point since 2002, meaning the Pointers have won 12 of the last 13 at home. This is the first of two meetings this season.

The series between UW-Stevens Point and UW-Oshkosh dates all the way back to 1899 with the Pointers holding a 121-85 lead head-to-head. The Titans used a 14-0 run in the second half to record a 64-59 victory in Stevens Point on Jan. 16. UW-Stevens Point swept the two regular-season meetings last season but UW-Oshkosh knocked the Pointers off 50-47 in the semifinals of the WIAC Tournament to snap UWSP's 15-game winning streak in the series. UW-Stevens Point has won seven in a row in Oshkosh.