Box Score

STEVENS POINT – The Pointers captured their fifth Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament title in the 11 year history of the post-season tournament on Saturday with a 45-42 win over UW-Platteville on Saturday afternoon.

The win completes a sweep of both the regular season and tournament crowns for the Pointers, who receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. Pairing will be announced on Monday.

Twice in the first half the Pointers built seven point leads, once at the 13:32, going ahead 10-3, and again at the 7:47 mark, 18-11.

Not to be outdone, the Pioneers mounted a comeback, going on a 14-0 run down the stretch to pull ahead by seven, 25-19, with just over a minute remaining in the opening half.

Matt Moses (Fond du Lac, St. Mary Springs) connected on a jumper with one second remaining in the half, cutting the deficit to five, 25-20 as both team's headed to the locker room.

In the second half, the Pioneers did their best to hold the Pointers down, maintaining a five point lead until the 15:51 mark when Louis Hurd (Portage) scored five straight points for UWSP and knotted the score at 31.

From there the Pointers pulled ahead by five, 40-35, with four minutes remaining before Charlie Lohoff and Mike Shaw pulled the Pioneers within one, 41-40, with 2:33 left in the game.

With 33 seconds remaining and the one point lead, the Khalifa El-Amin (Milwaukee, Rufus King) hit a floating jumper from the baseline to give the Pointers a three point advantage, 43-40. Platteville answered 10 seconds later with a layup by Nick Allen to once again cut the UWSP lead to one, 43-42.

But with :18 on the clock, Bryan Beamish (Wisconsin Rapids, Lincoln) hit a pair of free-throws to give the Pointers another three point lead and two missed opportunities by Platteville in the waning seconds came up short, as the Pointers secured the victory and their fifth conference tournament title.

Hurd led the way for the Pointers, scoring a team-high 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor and collected seven rebounds. El-Amin added nine points and four assists while Pete Rortvedt (Minocqua, Lakeland) added eight and Beamish added seven. Beamish also collected seven rebounds, four assists and four blocks in the victory.

For Platteville, Curt Hanson led the way with 15 points while Charlie Lohoff added 12 as the only two Pioneers in double figures. The Pointer defense held Jeff Skemp without a field goal and limited the Pioneer big man to just two points and three rebounds on the night.