Hi to all,

Sorry to everyone for my prolonged abscence.  She's been nothin' but basketball up here in Stevens Point for the last few weeks.  Let me take you through our most recent roadtrip-3 WIAC games on the road.  That's 120 minutes of constant road basketball...but in our case we needed 130!

After a poor showing on our home court against Carroll University, we said we needed to regroup.  We knew we had three big games coming up in our league that could propel us on our way to a conference championship.  First comes UW-Oshkosh on Saturday the 3rd...

Having a Saturday game means traveling with the womens' team.  We play back to back games in the afternoon, ours being the first.  This will continue throughout conference play.  We knew Oshkosh was a good home team and we would have to play very well to beat them on their court.  We did just that as beat the Titans 74-65 in a neck and neck game.  We finally managed to pull away in the second half.  40 minutes down!

Our second of three road jaunts was against the Falcons of UW-River Falls.  That's a nice three hour ride!  After our team meal stop at the Country Kitchen in Cadott, WI, we made the rest of the journey to the gym.  The Falcons would not come quietly as we had to pull out a road victory in overtime.  I think I can vouch for everyone in saying that our defense wasn't up to par by our standards.  I give River Falls credit for a great battle down the stretch.  It was a great game, but someone had to win.  Glad it was us!  This time it took 45!

The last of the three was the most intense by far.  We had to travel to UW-Platteville, the #4 ranked team in the nation.  It was another weekend game, so the women were along for the ride.  The gym was pretty packed for the #4 vs. #6 showdown, not to mention that the victor would have a leg up for the conference title.  A lot of chips were on the table.  Once again, the game was back and forth for the entire regulation.  Forty minutes would not be enough once more.  For those of you who haven't followed our season too closely, this would make for our 4th overtime game of the year.  We used that to our advantage.  Playing in close games can really make a team more poised, and I think we were.  Everyone had their moments in the game but I thought sophomore Nick Krull had an excellent showing.  He caught the Pioneers off guard and scored 9 points and dished out some key assists while coming off the bench.  Seniors Bryan Beamish and Jerome Wotachek both battled 6'10 Pioneer center Jeff Skemp the whole game, taking him out of his comfort zone.  What a game!  The final ended up being 73-66.  Yet another 45 minutes...but don't get the feeling that we like overtime!

I'm very proud of our team for taking three road wins in a row.  We set ourselves up for a great chance to accomplish our goal of winning the WIAC championship.

We finally get a home game for our fans! UW-Stout this Wednesday!  Come on over to Quandt Gym for some great Pointer action.

Hope your new year is going perfectly!