STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The UW-Stevens Point men's basketball travels to Oshkosh on Thursday for the semifinal round of the WIAC Championship (presented by Culver's) against the No. 4 Titans.
 
THE BASICS
Who:  UW-Stevens Point (17-8) at #4 UW-Oshkosh (23-2)
When: Thursday, February 21 – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Kolf Sports Center – Oshkosh, Wis.
Follow:  Live Stats | Watch | Listen - 92.1 FM WPCN | Notes
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Pointers began the game on a 9-0 run and leveraged a 15-0 second-half run into an 89-61 drubbing of UW-Eau Claire in the first round win on Tuesday in Stevens Point.  Ethan Bublitz (Jackson, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) led four Pointers in double figures with 19 points.  Junior Blake Ehrke (Deerfield, Wis./Deerfield) recorded his first career double-double with career-highs of 13 points and 11 rebounds.  He made 9-of-9 free throws in the game. Nate Dodge (East Troy, Wis./East Troy) and Canon O'Heron (Bangor, Wis./Bangor) also scored in double digits with 14 and 12 points, respectively.
 
DEFENSE FIRST
The Pointers rank first in the conference with 60.2 points allowed through the regular season.  The defense has stuck to that giving up 61 or fewer points in 10 of the last 12 games.  UWSP also tops the league with a +3.88 turnover margin.  In five of the victories this season, UWSP has held its opponent under 50 points.
 
FAST START
The Pointers scored first in 18 games in the regular season.  In seven of the games, UWSP held leads of 6-0, 8-0 (twice), 9-0 (twice), 10-0 and 12-0 to begin games.  The Pointers are out-scoring opponents 867-691 in the first half this season.
 
AT THE LINE
The Pointers lead the WIAC in free throw percentage at .789.  Drew Fredrickson (Mount Horeb, Wis./Mount Horeb) leads the team with a .927 percentage at the charity stripe, a mark that would top the conference if he met the minimums.  He has made 38 of 41 on the season and dating back to last year, he had a streak of 20-straight makes before the Illinois Wesleyan game on Dec. 29.
 
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.  Thirteen of the 17 UWSP wins this season have come by double-digit margins.
 
MULTI-FACETED OFFENSE
The Pointers had five players in double figures on Jan. 5 at UWRF and has had four players score in double figures in a game 10 other times this season.  The balance of scoring has been offset with big scoring nights by Dodge (40 at Augustana, 31 against Illinois Wesleyan), O'Heron (23 at Hope, 23 at UWEC), Bublitz (22 at UW-Stout) and Fredrickson (20 at Hope).  This inside-out balance has been the recipe for success this season for the Pointers.
 
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.
 
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Dodge leads the Pointers with a 16.4 scoring average for the season, the second-best in the conference, and leads the WIAC with 2.96 three-point makes per game this season.  Bublitz is second on the team at 12.3 as the Pointers have four players in double figures.  O'Heron has a team-leading 126 rebounds. Fredrickson is 38-for-41 from the line this year and leads UWSP with 65 assists.  Brett Tauber (Madison, Wis./Memorial) has a team-high 39 offensive rebounds on the season. As a team, UWSP leads the nation in fewest turnovers (229), scoring defense (60.2) and are second in fewest turnovers per game (9.5).
 
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The Titans bring a 23-2 record and the No. 4 ranking into Thursday's semifinal matchup.  UWO is the top-seed in the tournament after winning the first regular season title since 2002.  Senior Ben Boots leads four Titans in double figures all averaging more than 14 points per game.  He also tops the team with 103 assists, second-most in the league.  Junior Jack Flynn has a team-high 197 rebounds with a league-leading 88 on the offensive glass.  Fellow junior Adam Frevert has a league-best 49 blocks and his 31 steals lead the team.  The Titans lead the conference in a number of categories, including scoring offense (83.9), scoring margin (+17.1), field goal percentage (.475), three-point shooting percentage (.377), rebounding margin (+9.6), blocked shots (111), assists (391) and three-pointers made (251).
 
SERIES HISTORY
UWSP hold a 125-89 all-time advantage against the Titans. UWO swept the season series using a 12-0 first-half run for a 78-68 win in Stevens Point.  The Pointers held a three-point halftime lead in Oshkosh, but a 2:43 scoring drought to end the game allowed the Titans to hold on for a 77-70 win. It was the first season sweep by the Titans since the 1997-98 season.

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 300-88, including a 160-43 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.
 
Matt Lewis is in his first season as the interim head coach at UW-Oshkosh.  He spent the last six seasons as the top assistant for the Titans.  He helped UWO record a 95-73 record in his six seasons as an assistant.  Prior to arriving in Oshkosh, he had coaching stints at Tulane (La.), Cornell (Iowa) and Rhodes (Tenn.).  He played at Cornell from 2005-10 and was an Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference first-team selection in 2010.
 
UP NEXT
The winner of Thursday's semifinal will face the winner of the UW-La Crosse versus UW-Platteville semifinal. Saturday's championship game will tip-off at 5:00 p.m.