Box Score

STEVENS POINT - Seventh-ranked UW-Stevens Point avenged it's only loss of the season on Wednesday night, defeating the sixth-ranked Blugolds of UW-Eau Claire behind 16 points from senior Janell Van Gomple (DeForest/DeForest) (DeForest) and 10 points from freshman Cassie Bandow (Plover, WI/Pacelli) (Plover) off the bench.

It was a back-and-forth battle in the first half marked by five ties and six lead changes. Eau Claire pulled ahead by four, 10-6, with 11:10 remaining in the half, but Bandow connected on a three and after a Blugold free-throw, Christin Coles (Hustisford/Hustisford) (Hustisford) connected from downtown to give the Pointers a 12-11 edge with 9:20 remaining.

Eau-Claire again built a four point lead at the 7:24 mark, going ahead 18-14, but the Pointers used a 10-2 run to take another four-point lead, 24-20, with 5:07 left in the opening half. After Eau Clair again tied the game at 24-24 thanks to a pair of Missy Fremstad free-throws, Point built their lead back to three, as Katie Webber (Reedsburg/Reedsburg) (Reedsburg) connected on a three-pointer at the 3:53 mark. A Van Gomple jumper and Ashley Baker (Vesper/Pittsville) (Vesper) lay-up gave the Pointers all they needed to take a five point lead, 31-26, into halftime.

Stevens Point opened the second half on an 11-2 run to take their largest lead of the game, 14 points (42-28) with 16:01 remaining. Eau Claire slowly ate away at the Pointer lead, cutting the deficit to one, 46-45, with 7:00 left thanks to a Heidi Arciszewski jumper. From there, Van Gomple and the Pointers pulled away, opening up a seven point lead down the stretch. Eau Claire cut the lead to four, 64-60 with 31 seconds left, but free-throws by Bandow and Webber in the final seconds sealed the victory for the Pointers.

UW-Stevens Point shot just 37.9 percent from the floor in the first half and 39.6 percent for the game, compared to 44.4 percent by UW-Eau Claire. The Blugolds tallied 28 points in the paint compared to just 10 by the Pointers, but UW-Stevens point held the advantage on the glass, outrebounding the visitors by six including a 12-4 edge on the offensive glass, converting that into 15 second-chance points.

For the Pointers, Van Gomple added six rebounds to her 16-point performance while Bandow also added six rebounds and two assists. Jessi Sporle (Mineral Point/Mineral Point) (Mineral Point) and Baker each tallied nine points and Britta Petersen (Luck/Luck) (Luck) added seven points, six rebounds and three steals in the victory.

UW-Eau Claire's Hannah Mesick led all scorers with 21 while Arciszewski chipped in 18 in the loss.

UW-Stevens Point (16-1, 8-0 WIAC) remains the only unbeaten in conference play and puts their 12-game winning streak on the line Saturday, Jan. 24 when UW-Oshkosh comes to town for a 5 p.m. match-up with the Pointers. UW-Eau Claire falls to 14-2 on the season, 6-2 in the WIAC.