CSS vs. Viterbo Box Score

UWSP vs. MSOE Box Score
STEVENS POINT - The UW-Stevens Point women's basketball team opened the 2008-09 season in convincing fashion on Friday evening, defeating the Raiders of Milwaukee School of Engineering 71-34 in the opening round of the 2008-09 Pointer Tip-Off Tournament.

In the day's other game, Viterbo University defeated the College of St. Scholastica 79-39 and advances to play the Pointers in the tournament championship game at 3 p.m. Saturday. St. Scholastica will face MSOE at 1 p.m. in the consolation game.

Both teams traded blows in the games early minutes before the Pointers opened up a 23-9 lead thanks to a 12-0 run midway through the first half and continued to build their lead closing out the half with a 27 point lead, 45-18.

In the second half, it was again all Pointers, as UW-Stevens Point kept the Raiders at bay, and cruising to the 37 point victory.

Leading the way for the Pointers was Katie Webber (Reedsburg/Reedsburg) (Reedsburg), who tallied 15 points and three steals to lead a group of four Pointers who scored in double figures, including Jessi Sporle (Mineral Point/Mineral Point) (Mineral Point) who added 14, and Britta Petersen (Luck/Luck) (Luck) and Cassie Bandow (Plover, WI/Pacelli) (Plover) who added 10 each in the victory.

For the Raiders, Megan Syverson led the way with 14 points including 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the loss.

As a team, the Pointers went 0-for-13 from beyond the three-point arc, but used 29 points off turnovers and 34 points in the paint to down the Raiders and advance to their eighth-straight tournament final. The Pointers faced Viterbo at the beginning of that streak, in the 2000 Tip-Off tournament finals, narrowly escaping with a 54-51 victory over the V-Hawks.