Box Score
STEVENS POINT - Ask anyone what they expected out of Tuesday night's match-up between the nation's second and fourth-ranked programs and they would have told you the match-up could be compared to a prize fight.
The Pointers and Tommies did not disappoint.
Three ties and 10 lead changes marked a back-and-forth battle in the game's opening half, with neither team able to pull in front by more than four through much of the opening half.
With the Pointers trailing by one, 26-25 with 4:42 remaining, Stevens Point used a 12-2 run to open up a nine point edge with just seconds remaining in the half. A last-second Tyler Nicolai three-pointer at the buzzer cut the Tommie deficit to six at halftime, 37-31.
The Pointers stayed hot at the start of the second half, opening up a 16 point lead on the Tommies with 15:06 remaining in the game. From there, the Pointers never looked back pulling in front my as much as 28 down the stretch as they cruised to the 22-point victory.
The Pointers dominated the lane, boasting a 42-18 edge on points in the paint and held the second-ranked Tommies to just 36.2 percent shooting on from the floor. St. Thomas shot just 40 percent (6-15) from the free-throw line and had just one player, Nicolai, score in double figures. He led St. Thomas with 17 points.
The Pointer victory gives the Tommies their first loss of the season, ends an 18-game road win streak and a 33-game regular-season winning streak the Tommies had, dating back to February of 2008.
Coach Semling becomes just the seventh coach in Pointer history to win 100 games and boasts a career winning percentage of .806, highest of any coach in Pointer history who coached more than one season.
Louis Hurd (Portage) led four Pointers scoring in double figures. Hurd tallied 17 points on the evening while
Matt Moses (Fond du Lac) added 14,
Scott Hoelzel (Kaukauna) 13 and
Jerrel Harris (Whitefish Bay) 10. Hurd also led the Pointers with nine rebounds.
UW-Stevens Point (10-1) returns to action on Wednesday, Dec. 30 when the team travels to La Crosse for a 7 p.m. nonconference match-up with the V-Hawks of Viterbo University.
