STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The No. 12 UW-Stevens Point men's basketball team travels to Thousand Oaks, Calif., to face host Cal Lutheran and Illinois Wesleyan in the Cal Lutheran Holiday Classic on Dec. 28-29.
 
THE BASICS
Who:  #12 UW-Stevens Point (6-2) at Cal Lutheran (2-5)
When: Friday, December 28 – 10:00 p.m. CT
Where: Gilbert Arena – Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Who:  #12 UW-Stevens Point (6-2) vs. Illinois Wesleyan (8-3)
When: Saturday, December 29 – 8:00 p.m. CT
Where: Gilbert Arena – Thousand Oaks, Calif.
 
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LAST TIME OUT
The Pointers were held to just one field goal over a nearly seven minute span in the second half as St. Thomas defeated UWSP, 73-57, on Dec. 15 in Minnesota.  Four Pointers were in double figures with Brett Tauber (Madison, Wis./Memorial) and Drew Fredrickson (Mount Horeb, Wis./Mount Horeb) pouring in 13 points apiece.  UWSP's five starters scored 55 of the 57 points in the game.
 
DEFENSE FIRST
The Pointers rank first in the conference with 60.6 points allowed through the first eight games.  UWSP also tops the league with a +8.00 turnover margin.  In three of the victories this season, UWSP has held its opponent under 50 points.
 
FAST START
The Pointers have scored first in six of the eight games this season.  In three of the games, UWSP held leads of 6-0, 8-0 and 10-0 to begin games.  The Pointers are out-scoring opponents 295-221 in the first half this season.
 
WINNING BIG
The Pointers opened the 2018-19 season with three-straight wins by double digits.  The last time UWSP started a season with three wins by 10 or more points was in 2013-14.  That season, the Pointers won the first 10 games of the season by 10 or more points.  The five of the six UWSP wins have come by double-digit margins.
 
MULTI-FACETED OFFENSE
This season, UWSP has had four players score in double figures in a game three times.  The balance of scoring has been offset with big scoring nights by Dodge (40 at Augustana), O'Heron (23 at Hope) and Fredrickson (20 at Hope).  This inside-out balance has given the Pointers' opponents trouble all season long.
 
DODGE DOES IT AGAIN
Dodge scored 40 points at Augustana on Nov. 28, the second time in his career at UWSP with 40 or more points (42 vs. Hope on Dec. 8, 2017).  He is just the third player in program history with multiple 40+ point games.  His effort landed him his second career WIAC Player of the Week honor as well.
 
ABOUT UW-STEVENS POINT - Home | Roster | Schedule | Stats
UWSP came in at No. 12 in the final D3Hoops.com ranking of 2018.  Dodge leads the Pointers with a 17.8 scoring average for the season, third-best in the WIAC. Dodge is second in the WIAC with 3.25 three-point makes per game this season.  O'Heron is second on the team at 12.6 as the Pointers have four players in double figures.  Drew Fredrickson (Mount Horeb, Wis./Mount Horeb) is a perfect 15-for-15 from the line this year and leads UWSP with 26 assists.  His 3.71 assist-to-turnover ratio is third in the conference. Tauber has a team-high 46 rebounds on the season.
 
ABOUT CAL LUTHERAN - Home | Roster | Schedule | Stats
Cal Lutheran is off to a 2-5 start to the 2018-19 season, including four-straight losses.   Senior Kyle Ferreira tops the team at 22.6 points per game, the leader of a trio of double-figure scorers.  He also has a team-high 59 rebounds on the season. Junior Palmer Chaplin leads the Kingsmen with 37 assists.  As a team, CLU has scored more than 100 points twice this season, both losses to Pacific (Ore.).
 
ABOUT ILLINOIS WESLEYAN - Home | Roster | Schedule | Stats
The Titans snapped a three-game skid with a 93-70 win over Anderson University on Dec. 19 and enter the Cal Lutheran Holiday Classic at 8-3 on the season.  Last week's win over Anderson was the third time this season that IWU scored 90 or more points, all wins.  Senior Brady Rose leads a trio of Titans in double figures with 21.0 points per game and he leads the team in assists (42).  Sophomore Charlie Bair has a team-high 78 rebounds on the year.
 
SERIES HISTORY
UWSP trails the all-time series against both Cal Lutheran and Illinois Wesleyan.  Cal Lutheran defeated the Pointers in the only previous matchup on Jan. 1, 2008 by a 72-70 score in California. 
IWU holds a narrow 3-2 lead over UWSP in the all-time series, however, the Pointers have won two of the last three meetings.  All three match-ups since 2010 have come in the NCAA Tournament.  In the last meeting on March 7, 2015, the Pointers out-scored the Titans 35-19 in the second half to advance to the Sweet 16.
 
THE COACHES
Bob Semling in his 14th season as the head coach at UW-Stevens Point and has won four national championships with the Pointers. He led the Pointers to national titles in 2010 and 2015 as a head coach and was an assistant on the back-to-back national title teams of 2004 and 2005. Semling has a career record of 289-82, including a 152-37 mark in WIAC play. His .780 career winning percentage entering this season was the third-highest among active Division III coaches and ranks first all-time among Division III for coaches with at least 10 seasons as a head coach.
 
Cal Lutheran coach Tim Fusina is in his second season with the Kingsmen with an overall record of 11-20 at CLU.  Prior to arriving in Thousand Oaks, he was the head coach at Centenary University in New Jersey for four seasons.  He led Centenary to its only two winning seasons in program history.  Fusina also spent five seasons as an assistant at Washington and Jefferson College.
 
Ron Rose is in his 13th season as the head coach at Illinois Wesleyan.  He holds a 233-114 career record with the Titans.  Rose led IWU to back-to-back conference titles in 2103 and 2014.  He guided the Titans to the NCAA Tournament in six-straight years from 2010 to 2015.  Prior to arriving at IWU, he was the head coach at Bloomington High in Illinois for five seasons.  Rose played for IWU for four years and is still No. 6 in school history with 356 career assists.
 
UP NEXT
The Pointers begin conference play at home on Jan. 2 against UW-Whitewater.  Tip-off on Bennett Court at Quandt Fieldhouse is slated for 7:00 p.m.