MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[cubs]

The Edgewood v La Crosse game should be pretty good. 

Ripon v Oshkosh should also be competitive.

Ripon 66
Oshkosh 53

FINAL

Besides taking last in the WIAC this season looks like UWO is on their way to finishing in the cellar in the MWC....

[Greek Tragedy]

Oshkosh looks bad, but Knox and Cornell might have something to say about that!

[voice]

UW-Whitewater opens its season tonight by hosting Beloit at Kachel Gym.

The Hawks won the NCAA Division III national title last March but Hawk head coach Pat Miller wants this year's squad to "turn the page" and put its focus on this season.  Voice's Eye on Basketball Blog has a story on Coach Miller, now entering his 12th season as UWW head coach.

http://www.voiceseyeonbasketball.blogspot.com/2012/11/coach-miller-focusing-on-new-season.html

[Greek Tragedy]

The Edgewood v La Crosse game should be pretty good. 

Ripon v Oshkosh should also be competitive.

Ripon 66
Oshkosh 53

FINAL

Besides taking last in the WIAC this season looks like UWO is on their way to finishing in the cellar in the MWC....

Oshkosh never lead, but they did keep it close for most of the game according to the game story.

It got away from them a little bit in the last 10 minutes of the 1st half, but the fought pretty good in the 2nd half and still had it within 1 at the six minute mark and 5 at the 3 minute mark.  Free throws sealed it though.

Ripon is picked middle of the pack in the MWC this year.  They also have a new coach.

[Greek Tragedy]

Well, it wasn't pretty, but Point held on to beat Lawrence on Thursday 72-64.

Promising to see five players in double-digits since I'm not sure how many times that happened last year.  They came out flat and Lawrence took it to them with DeWolf doing a lot of damage down low.  Point was down by 10 with 10 to go and then they made an impressive run. 

The beginning of the 2nd half looked like it was going to be a runaway with Point getting the lead up to 18 with just under 11 to go.  But, Lawrence came back to get it with 5 with 1:25 to go.  Point made their FTs down the stretch, while LU missed several.

As said before, DeMyers looked completely lost in his cameo, but it was nice to see others willing to take some shots instead of just letting Tillema do all the work while they stood around.  The good news is that Heuer had 14 points in 17 minutes.  The bad news is that Heuer only played 17 minutes.  LU took full advantage of the time when he was on the bench.  After Heuer, Point doesn't have a lot of size with Vanhandel and Forsythe out.  Studer will really have to help out in the mean time.  He didn't do much, but that's expected for a first game on the road.  Hopefully he'll get more comfortable.

At times, our interior defense was horrible, so that will definitely need to improve. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Another big slate of games involving WIAC teams today.

Stevens Point at St. Olaf
Goshen vs Eau Claire (at Platteville)
Ripon vs. La Crosse (in Wisconsin Dells)
Edgewood vs Oshkosh (in Wisconsin Dells)
River Falls at Northwestern (MN)
Beloit at Whitewater
Simpson (IA) vs Stout (in St. Paul)

Should be a WIAC sweep today except for Edgewood taking care of Oshkosh.

[John Gleich]

DeMyers looked completely lost in his cameo

Coach Semling mentioned that he was put in a really tough situation. I don't remember the specifics, but after sitting on the bench for 25 or 30 minutes, it's tough to step in for a seasoned player, let along a guy who is playing in his first college game.

I'm glad that Coach Sem seemed willing to give a lot of guys a chance to play meaningful minutes. There were lots of times last year when it seemed like Point only dressed 7 or 8 guys, not 14, because the bench was so short.

I think in some respect, they're trying to figure out what they have and what combinations work well... but on the other hand, it's great for all of the guys to get experience.


This should be an interesting game for Point tonight. They lost at a different MIAC school last year (St John) in Minnesota early in the year last year, and St Olaf was the third place team in the MIAC last year (one game behind Gustavus Adolphus and St. Thomas). They were picked 7th in the league in the preseason poll, but there were only 5 poll points separating 4th and 7th.

Point beat the Oles 83-70 last year and controlled the game throughout, taking an early 10-15 point lead and not relinquishing it... but they couldn't extend the lead to put them away for good.

The Oles are 1-0 as well, beating Bethany Lutheran 74-66. Some interesting stats that pop out... STO hit 10 3's, but shot terribly from the FT line and got outrebounded by quite a bit.

[tomt4525]

Point up 41-40 at half against St Olaf.  Both teams are shooting very well.  Point defense is giving up a ton of open looks off curl cuts, need to figure something out on that end of the floor.  Ryf, Ritchay and Hass playing well and hitting open shots.  Tillema has a few buckets but Heuer has been almost non existent.

[Greek Tragedy]

The live stats link is blank.  Anyone else having trouble?

[John Gleich]

The live stats link is blank.  Anyone else having trouble?

Yep, there are no live stats. The video is working. Unfortunately...

SP trails 72-65 with 8 minutes left. Not good defensively.

[tomt4525]

The live stats link is blank.  Anyone else having trouble?

The live stats aren't working but I am watching the live stream.  Point is a terrible defensive team, Olaf has been just setting on ball screens all game and Point can't do anything about it.  It's really disappointing honestly.  Plus, Point only has one guy who can create his own shot and has about 12 more turnovers than Olaf has.

[John Gleich]

The live stats link is blank.  Anyone else having trouble?

The live stats aren't working but I am watching the live stream.  Point is a terrible defensive team, Olaf has been just setting on ball screens all game and Point can't do anything about it.  It's really disappointing honestly.  Plus, Point only has one guy who can create his own shot and has about 12 more turnovers than Olaf has.

SP's free throw defense is stellar again tonight though... STO just missed the front end of a 1 and 1 up 2 with :31. SP missed a 3, fouled again with :08.4, guy missed the front end of two... one to come.

Missed it... but Joe Ritchay nailed a DEEP 3 from about 25 ft... with 1.3 left.  Wow....

[John Gleich]

Point fortunate to get the win... 82-81. Some terrible video camera work at the end... they throw a long pass but the camera doesn't follow it... I assume that they either didn't get off a shot or missed it, b/c Point won.

[tomt4525]

If Lawrence and St. Olaf hit free throws, the Pointers could be 0-2 right now.  With how Point shot the ball, they should have blown out Olaf.  This was all on the defense, they need some better intensity or it isn't going to be a season Pointer fans are used to.  It was nice to see some more offense out of Ritchay and Ryf though.  Hass shot the lights out, besides Heuer having two charge calls, he was a beast in the paint down the stretch.  He's a very good free throw shooter as well, and that turned out to be huge.

[John Gleich]

#15 UW Stevens Point led by as many as 11 in the first half but by just one as they led 41-40 at St. Olaf.

The Oles came out and outworked, outshot, and outplayed the Pointers in the second half to take a 70-60 lead, but Point managed to get a few stops and hit a few shots... but trailed 81-79 with :31 left in the game.

St. Olaf missed the front end of a 1 and 1, but Point missed a 3 with 7 seconds left.  St. Olaf then missed BOTH free throws of a double bonus situation and sophomore Joe Ritchay hit a 25 foot three pointer with 1.3 seconds left. I honestly don't know what happened after that because St. Olaf's camera didn't follow the play to the other side of the floor....

But the final ended up in Stevens Point's favor!

#15 UW Stevens Point defeats St. Olaf 82-81