61-55 loss to Pointers ends women's season

Written by: Jeremy Williamson, Sports Information Assistant

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. -- The Pioneers ended their season 15-11 overall and 8-8 in the WIAC, as they lost to the Pointers of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 61-55, Wednesday night at Bo Ryan Court.

The women's basketball team will be saying goodbye to five seniors including Stacy Clark, Keeley Schulz, Alyssa Krajco, Taylor Buckmaster and Rachel Cropp.

Because Clark and Schulz transferred to UW-Platteville, Krajco, Buckmaster and Cropp were the only three Pioneers to play all four seasons under head coach Megan Wilson.

Krajco finished the season with 456 points to add to her 1,237 career total, while contributing 605 rebounds over her four-year tenure. 

Cropp earned a total of 682 career points and dished out 274 assists in that time.

During her two-year career at UW-Platteville, Clark managed to put up 787 points and snag 324 total rebounds.

In the first half of the game, the Pioneers shot 36.7 percent from the field, going 11-for-30, as well as 2-for-10 from three-point range.

Schulz was the first Pioneer to score with a nice layup from about eight feet out, 2-1.

Both teams struggled with scoring early as the score was only 9-8 Pointers, about six minutes into the game.

After the Pioneers led for about five straight minutes, the Pointers crept back to tie the game at 15 with 8:34 remaining in the first period.

Mykaela Brandt was the last player to score in the first half off a drive to the basket with an unsuccessful and-one, to send the Pioneers into the locker room with a three-point lead, 26-23.

The first half of play saw seven lead changes, three tie scores and a total of 20 turnovers, 12 by the Pointers and eight by the Pioneers.

The Pointers took the lead under four minutes into the second half, 29-28, but a Taylor Lorbiecki three, followed by a Krajco jumper brought the Pioneers back up by two, 33-31.

The final tie of the game came at 15:43 with the score notched at 33, as the Pointers would not give up the lead for the remainder of the game.

In the ensuing minutes the Pointers went on a 6-1 run, 37-34, until Clark broke the run at 10:19 to bring the Pioneers within one, 37-36.

Just as it seemed the Pointers were making a late breakaway run, Clark hit another jumper in the paint to keep the Pioneers within four, 50-46.

Clark finished the game with 11 points, shooting 5-for-18 from the field, 1-for-4 from three-point range and grabbed four rebounds.

Down by six with about three minutes to play, 52-46, it was Brandt who hit her second three on the night to make it a one-possession game, 52-49.

Brandt led the team with 13 points on the night, shooting 5-for-7 from the field and 3-for-5 from downtown. 

After trailing by five with under 30 seconds to play, Brandt's final three kept the Pioneers in the game, 57-55, as Coach Megan Wilson called a quick timeout after the basket.

Off the inbound, Lorbiecki tried to drive to the basket, but the ball was stripped with 9.9 seconds remaining, as the Pointers were sent to the line where they expanded their lead to six, 61-55.

A failed final attempt by the Pioneers left Stevens Point with the 61-55 victory and sent them on to the next round of the WIAC tournament.

In their first two seasons at UW-Platteville the seniors went 13-37 overall, with five wins and 17 losses in the conference.

In their final two seasons, the women improved drastically earning 28 wins and 24 losses overall, while going 15-17 in conference.

They finish their careers with an overall record of 41-61, with a WIAC record of 20-44.

As of now coach Wilson will be returning nine of the women on her roster for the 2015-2016 season.