University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point Athletics

Following the NCAA Division III women's basketball third place game on Saturday in Virginia Beach, Va., there was no hiding the feelings of the UW-Stevens Point squad after its 64-63 loss to Rochester (N.Y.).
     
"We blew it," said coach Shirley Egner. "We had a 16-point lead and blew it. Let's face the facts."
     
"We had our chance," said Pointers' forward Amanda Nechuta (Mosinee, Wis./Mosinee). "We had control of the game and just couldn't finish it."
     
The truth was the Pointers appeared to be cruising to a season-ending victory, holding a 48-32 lead with 14 minutes remaining. However, Nechuta picked up her fourth foul with 13:41 left and the Pointers missed eight straight shots before Nechuta finally returned to the floor and scored with 7:42 left to give the Pointers a 50-47 lead.
     
From that point, neither team held bigger than a four-point cushion and Rochester took the lead at 62-61 on a jumper by Megan Fish with 2:08 left. After a pair of missed three-pointers by UW-Stevens Point, Tara Carozza made the first of two free throws for Rochester. She missed the second, but a Pointers' lane violation gave her another chance and she delivered for a 64-61 lead.
     
Andrea Kraemer (Waukesha,Wis./Waukesha North) hit a short jumper for the Pointers to cut the lead to one point with 1:01 remaining. Rochester missed a shot with 28 seconds led and the ball went out of bounds to UW-Stevens Point. Tara Schmitt (Brookfield, Wis./Catholic Memorial) missed a three-pointer from the corner and Rochester's Emily Lyons rebounded, but came down on the baseline to give the ball back to the Pointers with 14 seconds left.
     
UW-Stevens Point had two shots to retake the lead as Cassandra Schultz (Hartford,Wis./Hartford) missed a baseline jumper that Nathalie Lechault (Chavannes de Bogis, Switzerland/Int'l School of Geneva) rebounded and pushed out to Andrea Kraemer (Waukesha,Wis./Waukesha North), who missed a 10-foot jumper. Fish rebounded for the Yellowjackets and passed to a teammate down the floor as the Pointers were unable to foul.

"It's an unfortunate time for us not to be playing at our best this weekend," said Egner, whose team finished 28-5 and suffered just their third loss in 17 all-time tournament games, including the second in two days. "We had an opportunity to do something and didn't get it done. I hope it burns. I want it to hurt all off-season, all summer and all fall."
     
Rochester finished 25-5 and played a tightly-contested consolation game for the second straight year after losing to UW-Eau Claire in double overtime last year.
     
"Stevens Point was overpowering us for a while," said Yellowjackets' coach Jim Scheible. "I thought Stevens Point missed a lot of shots they would normally make. Our players stepped up and hit a lot of shots in that run."
     
Nechuta tallied 19 points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes before fouling out on an offensive foul with 2:28 remaining.

"A loss hurts no matter what time of the season it is," Nechuta said. "It's going to burn as much as any other loss."
     
Amy Scott (Rosholt, Wis./Rosholt) had 16 points and Schultz added 11 for the Pointers, who were two-for-16 from three-point range and six-for-32 from behind the arc in the tournament. Andrea Kraemer (Waukesha,Wis./Waukesha North) had all nine of her points in the second half and concludes her four-year career along with Schmitt and Cassandra Heuer (Two Rivers, Wis./Two Rivers) with a 100-19 career record.

"They've been an instrumental building block to what we've been able to do the last four years," Egner said. "You just don't replace kids."
     
Erika Smith scored 12 of Rochester's first 15 points, but didn't score again until 10 minutes remained in the game. She finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds.