STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The No. 17 UW-Stevens Point men's basketball team pits its fifth-ranked scoring defense against No. 1 Whitman College's fourth-ranked scoring offense in the third round of the NCAA Tournament in Platteville on Friday.
 
THE BASICS
NCAA Tournament Third Round
Who:  #1 Whitman College (28-1) vs. #17 UW-Stevens Point (21-8)
When: Friday, March 9 – 5:30 p.m.
Where: Bo Ryan Court – Platteville, Wis.
 
NCAA Tournament Quarterfinal Round
Who:  Winner of WC/UWSP vs. Winner of UW-Platteville/Nebraska Wesleyan
When: Saturday, March 10 – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Bo Ryan Court – Platteville, Wis.

Follow:  Live Stats | Watch | Listen - 92.1 FM WPCN | Notes (PDF) | UWP Tournament Central | NCAA Bracket
 
Tickets (any remaining tickets will be available beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday (walk-up only at the UWP ticket office) outside Bo Ryan Court)
[Visit the UWP Tournament Central page for the most up-to-date ticket information]
-$10 for adults
-$5 for students with a valid college ID, seniors and youth
-Free for children 2 years old and under
 
LAST TIME OUT
UWSP opened the NCAA Tournament with a 72-55 win over North Central on Friday in Minnesota.  Drew Fredrickson (Mount Horeb, Wis./Mount Horeb) led a trio of Pointers in double figures with 15 points.  In Saturday's second round win over Bethany Lutheran, junior Canon O'Heron (Bangor, Wis./Bangor) racked up a career-high 30 points to help UWSP advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT SUCCESS
The Pointers return to the NCAA Tournament for the 15th time in program history.  The last appearance came in 2015 when UWSP earned its fourth National Championship with a win over Augustana.  The Pointers have a 38-10 all-time record in NCAA Tournament games.  UWSP and Whitman have not met previously in the NCAA Tournament. The Pointers have played UW-Platteville and Nebraska Wesleyan, once each in the NCAA Tournament.  Both games were in 1997.
 
SETTING RECORDS
With 10 seconds left in UWSP's win over UW-Platteville on Jan. 20, MJ Delmore (Wisconsin Dells, Wis./Wisconsin Dells) hit the second of two free throws to seal the win.  Since that game, he has made 42-straight free throws, extending his school record to 43-consecutive made free throws heading into Friday's game.
 
Nate Dodge (East Troy, Wis./East Troy) set the school record with 10 made three-pointers in UWSP's win over Hope on Dec. 9.  He went 10-for-13 from behind the arc and made his last five attempts from long range.  Earlier in the season, he hit eight three-pointers as UWSP set a team single-game record with 22 makes from three-point range in a win at Buena Vista (Nov. 18).
 
LEAGUE LAURELS
UWSP was well represented on the WIAC postseason awards handed out on Wednesday (Feb. 28). MJ Delmore (Wisconsin Dells, Wis./Wisconsin Dells) and Canon O'Heron (Bangor, Wis./Bangor) earned first-team All-WIAC honors.  Nate Dodge (East Troy, Wis./East Troy) and Mark Nelson (Madison, Wis./Monona Grove) landed on the All-WIAC honorable mention squad.  Brett Tauber (Madison, Wis./Memorial) was named to the WIAC All-Defense team and Jontrell Robinson (Rockford, Ill./East) pocketed All-Sportsmanship Team honors.
 
Delmore was named WIAC Athlete of the Week on Jan. 23, the third UWSP player to earn the honor this season.  Brett Tauber (Madison, Wis./Memorial) was the second Pointers player to pick up the honor when he raked in the award on Jan. 9 following his double-double at UW-Stout.  On Dec. 12, Nate Dodge (East Troy, Wis./East Troy) was named WIAC Men's Basketball Athlete of the Week following his record-setting game against Hope.
 
THREE-POINT GAME
The Pointers enter Friday's game with the seventh-best three-point shooting average in the nation at 40.8.  UWSP is atop the WIAC with 252 three-point makes and 8.69 three-point field goals per game.  In the 21 wins this season, the Pointers are shooting .435 (199-457) from behind the arc with nine games at .500 or above.  In the eight losses, UWSP is hitting just .323 (53-164) from three-point range with .467 shooting the best among the eight defeats.  
 
SHARING THE ROCK
Led by Drew Fredrickson (Mount Horeb, Wis./Mount Horeb)'s 63 assists, the Pointers have 12 different players with double-digit assist totals this season.  UWSP has 372 assists through 29 games and have recorded assists on the second-highest percentage of made baskets (.535) among WIAC teams.
 
ASSIST-TO-TURNOVER LEADERS
Not only does Fredrickson top the team in total assists, but his assist-to-turnover ratio (2.25) would be second in the league if his assist total met the minimum.  O'Heron also has an assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.56 (50 assists, 32 turnovers) and Mark Nelson (Madison, Wis./Monona Grove) is at a solid 1.38 (54 A, 39 TO).
 
TRIPLE DOUBLES
For the 15th time this season, UWSP had at least three players in double figures in the win over North Central on Friday. In those games, the Pointers are 15-0 when at least three players are in double figures.
 
DODGE BALL
Dodge enters the weekend with the third-best three-point shooting percentage (.464) in the league and 11th in the country.  Dodge leads the WIAC with 77 made three-pointers. 
 
ABOUT UW-STEVENS POINT - Home | Roster | Schedule | Stats
UWSP is led in scoring by Delmore and Dodge at 12.1 and 11.9 PPG, the 12th- and 13th-highest scoring averages in the WIAC. Dodge averages 2.66 made three-pointers per game, the most in the conference.  Delmore is the best free throw shooter in the league at .900 on the season, the eighth-highest in the country, and he has made a program record 43 consecutive from the charity stripe.  Tauber leads the team with 147 rebounds, topping the squad in offensive boards (51), the fourth-most in the conference, and defensive boards (96).  He also ranks fifth in the league with 16 blocked shots.  O'Heron is second in the league with a .583 field goal percentage. During regular season conference play, UWSP led all WIAC teams in scoring defense (62.8), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.13) and rebounding defense (27.8).
 
ABOUT WHITMAN - Home | Roster | Schedule | Stats
Whitman bring the best record in the country (28-1) and the nation's top ranking into Friday's matchup.  The lone blemish on the Blues' record was in the NWC Tournament title game, a 91-88 loss to Whitworth.  Tim Howell and Joey Hewitt lead a trio of scorers in double figures at 18.5 and 17.6 points per game.  Darne Duckett is also in double digits at 10.6 and has come off the bench in all 28 games he has played.  Junior Austin Butler is third in the nation with 89 steals on the season and Whitman as a team is second in the country with 15.6 steals per game.  The Blues lead the nation in scoring margin at +22.8.  WC is also in the top-5 nationally in free throws attempts (752), turnovers forced (26.69 per game), turnover margin (+11.4) and scoring offense (99.0).
 
SERIES HISTORY
The Pointers and Blues are tied at 1-1 in the all-time series.  The teams met in Las Vegas in December with Whitman improving to 10-0 on the season with a 77-64 win over the Pointers.  In 2013, The Pointers took an 89-79 victory with Tyler Tillema scoring 15 of UWSP's 22 overtime points in the win.
 
THE COACHES
Bob Semling in his 13th 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 283-79, including a 152-37 mark in WIAC play. His .787 career winning percentage entering this season was the third-highest among active Division III coaches and ranks 10th all-time among all divisions for coaches with at least 10 seasons as a head coach.
 
Eric Bridgeland is in his 10th season as head coach at Whitman College.  In 2017, he earned National Coach of the year honors from Hero Sports and D3Hoops after a 31-1 season in which the Blues reached the national semifinals.  His Blues were the first Northwest Conference team in 83 seasons to finish with a perfect regular season and first since 1982 to reach the Final 4.  He holds a 196-76 record, with 72 wins of those coming in the last three seasons.  Prior to arriving at Whitman, he coached at Pepperdine, Puget Sound and UC Santa Cruz.
        
UP NEXT
The winner of Friday's game will face the winner of the Nebraska Wesleyan-UW-Platteville game in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.