Box Score

STEVENS POINT - The UW-Stevens Point women's basketball team avenged their only home loss of the 2008-09 season on Thursday and in the process advanced to their second consecutive WIAC tournament championship game, as they defeated the Blue Devils of UW-Stout 76-65.

The Pointers will host UW-Eau Claire, winners of Thursday night's other women's semifinal matchup, 61-34 at UW-Whitewater.

This will be the fourth match-up of the season for the Pointers and Blugolds, who met in Eau Claire last season for the conference tournament championship. The Pointers came out of Eau Claire with the victory, 62-50.

Saturday's game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. in Berg Gymnasium.

After UW-Stout held their only lead of the game, 2-1 at the 18:14 mark of the first half, the pointers rattled off a 18-6 run to jump in front by 11, 19-8 with 8:49 remaining in the first half. The Pointers led by as many as 15 down the stretch in the first half, and held a 33-21 advantage heading into the locker room at halftime.

In the second half, the Blue Devils got no closer than five, 37-32, with 14:33 remaining before the Pointers used a 15-3 run to jump ahead by 17, 52-35. From there, the Pointers led Stout get no closer than 12 down the stretch as they garnered the victory.

The Pointers used 32 points from their bench and forced 25 Blue Devil turnovers, turning them into 21 points, as they advance to face UW-Eau Claire.

Britta Petersen (Luck) led the way for the Pointers, scoring a game-high 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting and added six rebounds. Andrea Flease (New London) added 17 points off the bench, 13 of which came from the free-throw line, Cassie Bandow (Plover, Pacelli) added 13, also off the bench, and Jessi Sporle (Mineral Point) collected a double-double, her third of the season, pouring in 12 points and collecting 12 rebounds, eight offensive, in the victory.

For Stout, Charlee Edwards led the way with 16 points and 10 rebounds while Kim Stokke and Julia Hirssig each added 13.