Box Score Something about ranked opponents seems to bring out the best in the UW-Stevens Point men's basketball team.

For the second straight game and 18th time in its last 20 contests against ranked foes, the Pointers came out victorious, holding off a furious Lawrence comeback for a 70-67 victory over the Vikings on Tuesday in Appleton.

The 25th-ranked Pointers led by as many as 19 points and were ahead by 16 points with just over eight minutes left before the 13th-ranked Vikings had a chance to win the game in the final seconds.

Trailing by one point, Lawrence had a shot rim out that Pete Rortvedt (Minocqua/Lakeland) rebounded for the Pointers with one second remaining. Rortvedt then made two free throws to seal UW-Stevens Point's second straight road win over a ranked team to open the year. The Pointers beat the Vikings' Midwest Conference rival, Carroll, which is ranked 17th in the country, on Saturday.

The Vikings, who were 25-1 last year, had a 24-game regular season winning streak snapped in the loss. The game was a rematch of 2004 and 2005 NCAA tournament games as the Pointers beat Lawrence on the way to national titles each year.

UW-Stevens Point got another big offensive performance from senior Jon Krull, who had 25 points after posting 32 in the opener at Carroll. Krull had seven points in the first three minutes of the game as the Pointers took an early 9-0 lead. Lawrence cut the lead to four points on two separate occasions, but a 14-point surge by the Pointers later in the half gave them their biggest lead of the game at 40-21 with 1:46 left before halftime.

Lawrence cut the deficit to 42-28 at intermission, though the Pointers maintained the lead for most of the second half. UW-Stevens Point led 61-45 with 8:03 left when the Vikings reeled off 12 straight points as the Pointers missed six consecutive shots.

Ben Rosenblatt hit a three-pointer to pull Lawrence within 66-65 with 2:03 left, however, Krull answered with an inside basket to put the Pointers back ahead by three points. Andy Hurley hit two free throws with 56 seconds left to bring Lawrence back within 68-67 and Tommy Schmidt rebounded a Krull miss with 25 seconds remaining. Lawrence worked the ball inside to Chris Page, who missed a shot in the final seconds and then fouled Rortvedt on the rebound. The Vikings had scored on 10 of their previous 11 possessions before missing at the end.

Drew Jackson (Milwaukee/Rufus King) added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Pointers. Hurley and Ryan Kroeger each had 15 points to lead the Vikings.