MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[titan2000]

I think the "TITANic" is sinking.   

[badgerwarhawk]

Rats are excellent swimmers. 

[BDB]

I think the "TITANic" is sinking.   :

At 13-5 Oshkosh early the ship looked seaworthy.

Then Stouts match-up zone defense put the TITANic on ice.

[buf]

Stout fans-

How did you like Nonemacher's last dunk?  Pretty awesome!!!

Boy, he really has improved his game from last year.

[BDB]

I think the "TITANic" is sinking.   

T2K,

Full credit for the BlueDevil win has to go to my 5 year old daughter.

She wouldn't go to the game unless she could wear her full cat costume, complete with ears, mask, black tights and tail.

Somehow, just as the Titans were taking the floor, my little blonde haired black cat girl ran right in front of the Titan team making them slow down as not to run over her.

It was pretty much over at that point.  

That plus Stout has the talent and the team and the coaching that could take them to Salem if they don't watch out.

[titan2000]

Blue Devil Bob:

Did you "cat" daughter feast on any of the rats that undoubtedly were running away after the Devils destroyed the Titans?

Congrats to Stout, of course, it's starting to look like it really wasn't that big a win anymore. 

[John Gleich]

Point basically holds their destiny in their own hands, as they play the two teams either tied or ahead of them this week.

Last night's performance was a good one, with Point leading essentially the whole game.  La Crosse had a brief (one possession) lead in the first half, and there were two ties, but from the 16 minute mark, Point led. 

Matt Bouche had a career high 13 points... and none of his shots were inside 15 feet.  Each of Point's starters scored in double digits, lead, as usual, by Krull, with 27. 

The Eagles kept it relatively close (and made their run in the last couple of minutes) primarily with outside shooting.  Werner got free a few times and had some easy baskets, but for the most part he was held in check.  Bauer guarded him and didn't allow him to get the prime position he likes.

Conigliaro and Fehrenbach made some tough shots, especially down the stretch and ended up with 20 and 18.  Point let up some late threes, again, and the final score was not reflective of Point's lead for much of the first half.  This team has done better than most expected, I think, but they are still young, and they need to learn that the end of the game is not the time to relax, but it's the time to turn up the pressure and go in for the kill.

All told, it was a great showing by the Pointers and even though Point was outrebounded by one, I liked how they attacked the boards.  At the beginning of the second half, I got a little bit worried... Point had an 8 pt lead at the half (capped off by a Pete Rortvedt 3 with 6 seconds to go in the half), but La Crosse scored 10 of the first 12 points and got 3 offensive rebounds in the first 3 1/4 minutes of the half to tie the game.  That's when Matt Bouche really came alive, scoring the next 9 points as Point made their next 10 shots to take a 61-52 lead with 10 minutes to go.  The lead was up to 11 (72-61) when La Crosse made 4 three's in the last two minutes to keep in pace with the Pointers (who hit 13/16 ft's in the last 2 minutes).

[foul_language]

Why did Rortvedt sit out last year?

[John Gleich]

In leiu of redshirting, which they would have been able to do in the past, but were (and now) are prevented from, he, along with several other guys who could have played were given the choice before the first game if they wanted to be on the team (and not be guaranteed a uniform or playing time) or to not play, and thus not use a year of eligibility.

Rortvedt, El-Amin, Jackson, Kuchta, and Grusczynski all decided to go with this option. 

[Brian Carroll]

 Great crowd, great atmosphere, great shooting by the Pointers, and a bit of disappointment for me and the rest of the Eagle fans who made the trip. We just don't seem to match up well with the balanced shooting attack that StP boasts. As in the first game at LaCrosse, I thought the Pointer ball movement was outstanding. This was the glaring difference between the teams. Games at Quandt are a great advertisement for D3 basketball, and I hope Mitchell Hall can have such  great atmosphere in the near future.

[chmarx]

I agree with Brian.  It was a great game.  Congrats to the Point fans for almost filling the house.

[laxeagles1]

Great crowd, great atmosphere, great shooting by the Pointers, and a bit of disappointment for me and the rest of the Eagle fans who made the trip. We just don't seem to match up well with the balanced shooting attack that StP boasts. As in the first game at LaCrosse, I thought the Pointer ball movement was outstanding. This was the glaring difference between the teams. Games at Quandt are a great advertisement for D3 basketball, and I hope Mitchell Hall can have such  great atmosphere in the near future.

brian, don't know if you were at the lax game on weds against oshkosh but the last 2-3 minutes of that game was the rowdiest i have seen mitchell hall in my four years there........it was definitely a spectacle to see, considering i remember just a few short years ago that i could literally be one of 100 students there on a given night...........those numbers have greatly increased

[Greek Tragedy]

Not positive about it, but the 2,000+ at Quandt on Saturday was the largest this year.  What a great game.

Overall, Point played a pretty good game and really came up with some defensive stops when they really needed it.  I give a lot of credit to La Crosse for not giving up hope when it looked like Point was about to blow it out.  Everytime Point went on a run to go up by 7-10 points, La Crosse came down and hit some threes or some real nice baskets and cut it back down to 4-6.  La Crosse never let the game get away and after they hit some big threes near the end of the game, I was sweating.  La Crosse had it down to 5 with about a minute to play and then had a chance to cut it to 2 (come on, who are we kidding, they were going for the 3-pter!) but came up empty.  After that Point hit 9 of 10 FTs in the last minute to seal the deal.  

Great coaching to leave Bauer in after he picked up his 4th foul with just under six minutes to play and moving Bouche(?) over to guard stud Joe Werner.  Point, as we all know, has a pretty small lineup and Werner is a monster inside.  After some pretty easy shots by Werner, Semling started doubling a little bit in the post and it seemed to work, holding Werner to just 8 fg attempts.  

Enough can't be said about Matt Bouche's performance on Saturday.  The senior has persevered throughout the years and has been fighting Kevin Grusczynski for the starting spot all year.  Koelbl did little to adjust to Bouche's scoring output as it looked like Werner just refused to respect Bouche's midrange jumper.  

I also applaud Semling for basically telling Rortvedt to keep shooting.  Rortvedt looked like he started to lose a little confidence after starting off pretty slow and I saw Semling pull him aside and I can only guess that he said, "Hey, kid, I have confidence in you...keep shooting."  Rortvedt listened to coach and hit a big three pointer (for Point and his confidence) at the end of the first half and I could see Semling almost "chest bumping" Rortvedt!  Pretty cool stuff.

I also thought Beamish had a pretty solid game (though the boxscore won't show it).  He hustled a lot, got some boards and had some assists.  I only hope that Semling will gain more confidence in his bench (4 players played 32 or more minutes).  I thought Beamish would stay in a little longer since he was playing so well, but alas, the next thing I know, he's back on the bench.  Oh well.  I'm sure Semling knows what he's doing since he's a coach and I'm not!  

As usual, Krull led the way and had an outstanding game with 27 points, 8 assists and 10/10 from the line!

BTW, Drew Jackson was actually 0-1 from the field.  The boxscore shows him 0-0 (I was reminded by Swampgoon).  He made this great cut to the basket and the crowd was already cheering the assumed easy layup when he just choked it!  No one on him at all!  Maybe he was too close to the basket!  

Nice to see Jack Bennett make the games on Saturday and I'm guessing he made the men's alumni game as well.  Glad that flight got delayed! 

[frodotwo]

Brian Beamish plays well, but I wish he'd look for the shot a little more. He always seems to make an extra pass even though he has an open jumper. I don't know if it's a lack of confidence in his shot (shouldn't be!) or he looks to be more team concious, but if he's not going to shoot, he'll be played that way. A first half block by Jerome Wotachek on an open layup was a boost to the team and crowd, and the play of Matt Bouche was awesome. He's another one who needs a couple of shots to fall to get going and help the team. Wednesday should be another great game to watch!

[T.F. Guy]

Paper or Plastic:

When it comes to River Falls, Coach Bowen himself has said that they'll only do as well as Ryan Zylstra does.  He had a solid outing against Platteville, giving Jeff Skemp some trouble, but was hindered by foul trouble.  I like Zylstra's upside. 

Ryan Thompson quietly went about his business.  He's certainly adept at his first priority -- getting the ball to Hans Hoeg -- but turned down a lot of open shots.  Could be part of the reason why the Falcons have such a hard time putting points on the board.  Hoeg gets his shots, and Zylstra helps, but the rest of the team seems a little offensively-challenged.

Still, they compete.  Platteville had them behind by double figures for nearly the entire game but RF never surrendered.
We'd expect nothing less from a Bowen-coached team.

The Falcons aren't favorites to win the league tournament, but they'll be a tough out.  If Hoeg gets hot and Zylstra can stay on the floor they could surprise someone.