MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[John Gleich]

80-59 Point beats Stout
71-59 WW beats LaX
85-57  Osh beats EC
83-81  Superior beats RF

[BanditUWSP]

For those Pointer fans not at tonights game, Matt Moses went down hard in the first half and only played about a minute in the 2nd half.  Coach Semling said he suffered a hip-pointer and will be "day to day".  Also, I don't think depth will be an issue as they can go to their 10th or 11th player without much dropoff.

[Pioneer Hoops Fan]

According to UWP website, Eric Wall hits a shot at end of game to give UWP a 62-60 victory at Viterbo tonight.  No other details available at this point.

[John Gleich]

For those Pointer fans not at tonights game, Matt Moses went down hard in the first half and only played about a minute in the 2nd half.  Coach Semling said he suffered a hip-pointer and will be "day to day".  Also, I don't think depth will be an issue as they can go to their 10th or 11th player without much dropoff.

... Especially the way D. Tillema came on tonight.  Still, it's a pretty significant loss if he's out any significant period of time. 

How'd Jenkins look tonight?  I know he led Point in scoring and started, but that had more to do with the fact that he made his FT's and they pressed, which led to easier buckets on the back end.

[cubs]

Went to the UWO/UWEC game last night, and I have to say that even as a UWO backer, I was surprised at how well they played last night. 

Marsh came out on fire early hitting a couple of pull-up jumpers with a defender in his face to get UWO an early lead.  Oshkosh went 13 deep (and at one time had four freshman and Marsh on the floor) in the first 15:00 of the game, which is a far cry from the 7-8 deep rotation that was used most of last season. 

After EC tied the game up, UWO went on a nice run in the last 6:00 of the half to take a 16 point halftime lead.  This was as close as EC would get the rest of the way, as UWO goes on a 16-7 run to open the 2nd half to put the game away.  (UWO actually built their lead to 33 points late in the 2nd half.)

Was very impressed by the play of some of the young guys last night, notably UWO's Brian Washington, Sam Mageland, and UWEC's Marcus Ruh.  All three of them appear to have a bright future ahead of them.

[badgerwarhawk]

WHITEWATER 71
LaCrosse 59

LaCrosse had early leads at 2-0 and 4-2 before the WARHAWKS  took the lead for good 9-6 on a three-pointer by DJ Dantzler.   The lead fluctuated between 3 to 6 points thru the rest of the half until Mike Bendall and Dustin Mitchell (2) made consecutive baskets to put WHITEWATER up by 11, 42-31, at the half.  Behind a 15-4 run to start the second half lead grew to as many as 25 points twice in the second half before LaCrosse went on a 15-2 run over the last 5:33 to reduce it to the final.

Five WARHAWKS scored in double figures led by Mitchell's 17 points.  Bendall added 14 points, Dantzler 13 points (3-4 three-pointers), Phil Negri 11 points and Alex Edmunds 10 points.  WHITEWATER shot 56% from the floor.  The WARHAWKS won the battle of the boards 36-24.  Mitchell pulled down 9, Bendall 7 and Nolan Free 6.  

With the win the WARHAWKS have beaten LaCrosse 18 of the last 20 meetings.

[fredfalcon]

Not an encouraging night for Falcon fans, but 38% shooting does not ordinarily beat 56% shooting, especially when Smith (13/17 fga,  30 pts., 11 rbds.) has a monster game. After falling behind 24-9, RF scrabbled back to an 8 pt. deficit at half, then took a small lead part way thru the second half. Hill and Culy were very good also.

Maybe the key stat, however, was that two Jackets played 44 minutes, and Smith, who was out several times (leg cramps?) nevertheless played 40 minutes, according to the RF stat sheet.

Guerin led RF with 18 pts., 15 rbds., and DiJon Reese came off the bench and had 20 productive minutes, his best game. Falcons finally shot ft (80%), a weak  spot so far.

But--it's only one game. (I'm trying to be optimistic.)

[UWRF]

To make matters worse, Guerin has a second concussion in 6 days.

I would be surprised if he played on Saturday.

[John Gleich]

According to UWP website, Eric Wall hits a shot at end of game to give UWP a 62-60 victory at Viterbo tonight.  No other details available at this point.

It seems like Viterbo is hanging with the WIAC teams this year.  Has anybody seen them play?  I know they're just 2-6, but it took buzzer beaters for LaX and Platte to knock them off in the last two weeks.

[phoenix_rising]

...especially when Smith (13/17 fga,  30 pts., 11 rbds.) has a monster game

Jake Smith usually plays a monster game; it's the rest of the team that shows sporadic talent. I was very disappointed that Superior gave up a 17 point lead and had to go into overtime. I'll credit River Falls for coming to in the second half, but it's annoying none-the-less.

[bulk19]

According to UWP website, Eric Wall hits a shot at end of game to give UWP a 62-60 victory at Viterbo tonight.  No other details available at this point.

It seems like Viterbo is hanging with the WIAC teams this year.  Has anybody seen them play?  I know they're just 2-6, but it took buzzer beaters for LaX and Platte to knock them off in the last two weeks.

I've read about them and seen a few highlights on TV, but have not seen Viterbo in person... They have a pretty good inside-out side combo of two really decent senior players - Eric Ambrose, a 6- foot guard who scores about 15 ppg so far, and 6'7" Scott Buschman, at a clip of 19 or so... Not sure why they lost to UWRF by 15, but yep, the did hang with UWL and Platteville...

Just based on those three competitive, close WIAC games, it would be interesting to see if the Vhawks could hang around in a WIAC conference race over the course of a full season, and where this year's team would end up... Could it withstand the grind? Maybe, maybe not. But going on just these three games, this team, when it has played its best, might be one that you would not want to draw in the first round of the WIAC conference tourney opener.

[chmarx]

According to UWP website, Eric Wall hits a shot at end of game to give UWP a 62-60 victory at Viterbo tonight.  No other details available at this point.

It seems like Viterbo is hanging with the WIAC teams this year.  Has anybody seen them play?  I know they're just 2-6, but it took buzzer beaters for LaX and Platte to knock them off in the last two weeks.

I saw them against La Crosse.  They have two solid veterans and a lot of young guys.  I was surprised they stayed with Platteville.  Maybe they are better than I thought.

Badgerwarhawk covered the La Crosse/Whitewater game pretty well.  UWW impressed me with every aspect of their game except the ability to finish.  It seemed to me that they went on cruise control the last ten minutes or so, allowing La Crosse to make the game look closer than it was.  However, they never let us back in the game.

[John Gleich]

Anyone have the Point/RF video?  The link on the UWRF page doesn't come up wiht anything

[John Gleich]

LaX beats EC 69-64.
Point beats RF 73-61
Platte beats Sup 75-63 led by Hanson with 29
WW survives at Stout 62-57

Oshkosh beat Finlandia (FU) by about 20.

[Drake Palmer]

PS – Earlier this week we had a discussion on the MIAC board about the top 25 rankings & I argued that at #3, UST was ranked way too high.  I still believe that, but now I've seen a team that could legitimately be ranked that high: UW- Stevens Point.

I watched a good portion of the UST- St. Olaf game this afternoon & decided that since I didn't have evening plans, I'd take the short drive over to River Falls & watch the UWRF-UWSP game at 5:00.  When I arrived, there was about 7 minutes left in the first half, & River Falls was up 20-15 & I thought "Hmm, might the Falcons pull an upset?"  Well that thought was soon eliminated.  UWRF would only score 3 more points in the half as the Pointers put on a defensive clinic & shut out the Falcons over the last 6:44 of the first half to go into the locker room with 26-23 lead.

River Falls would come back & make several nice runs on the UWSP in the 2nd half, but UWSP was too tough, big, strong, quick & disciplined.  Scott Hoelzel was a stud & had a man-sized double- double with 14-14.   Why didn't he play last year?  He could have been the difference maker in the tourney loss to UST last spring.

Jared Jenkins was tough as well. Handling the ball, playing occasional PG, & at 6-4 200lbs, was able to effectively guard the very quick 5-9 Jontae Koonkaew. I checked the boxscore when I got home & they only had Jenkins credited for 1 block, but it sure seem like he had a couple of others.  Point's got a tremendous frontcourt with 6-6 225 lb Hoelzel, 6-7 190lb Nick Krull, & 6-5 230lb Lou Hurd.  They're all reasonably quick, can handle the ball, pass the ball extremely well,  & play excellent team basketball. Then you add into the mix All-WIAC 2G Matt Moses, waterbug quick new FY Pg Jerrel Harris, along with a solid bench & you've got a pretty doggone good  club.  Best team I've seen this year. Point appears to be in near mid-season form.  If they play like they did tonight & UST plays like they did earlier in the day, it doesn't bode well for the Tommies in their matchup with Point later on this month.