Season ends in 59-55 loss at home

Written by: Jeremy Williamson, Sports Information Assistant

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. -- The men's basketball team ended their season earlier than expected with a 59-55 loss to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Titans, Tuesday night at Bo Ryan Court.

The Pioneers finish their 2014-2015 season with a 16-10 overall record and a 9-6 record in the WIAC.

Over the tenure of four years here, the seniors accumulated 65 wins and 32 losses, while going 37-26 in conference play.

Leading the senior scorers was Jim Stocki with a career total of 1,048 points, while Jake Manning was not far behind with 1,030.

The next leading senior scorer was Wes Nemitz with 242.

Manning also contributed 149 rebounds this season to add to the total of 558 boards for his career.

As the game started slow, the Pioneers took advantage of the Titans' poor 36 percent, first half, shooting by taking a 14-7 lead at the 10:14 mark.

The Pioneers' largest lead of the half, and the game, came with 4:26 left in the first period as Stocki netted two of his 22 points with an easy layup off a steal.

Stocki shot 8-17 from the field, 6-10 from three-point range and snatched six rebounds on the night.

Although the Titans attempted to chip away the lead before the half with back-to-back layups, it was back-to-back threes by Nemitz and Stocki which stifled the comeback, and the Pioneers went into halftime with a 10-point lead, 34-24.

At the end of the first half the Pioneers were shooting 50 percent from the field, 13-26, and 61.5 percent from three-point range, 8-13, while grabbing one more board than the Titans, 14-13.

At the beginning of the second period the Pioneers were unable to score until the 16:36 mark, off a jumper from Manning.

Unfortunately by then the Titans had cut the halftime lead from 10 to four, 34-30.

After trading baskets for the next several minutes, the game was finally tied at 44 with just over seven minutes to play. 

The visitors took their first lead minutes later and continued on a 6-0 run, 50-44, until 2:51 when junior Cory Vaassen hit a layup to cut the Titan lead to four, 50-46.

Within the last two minutes of play both teams combined for a total of 14 points, but it was the Titans who prevailed, as the Pioneers never got closer than three within that time.

Up by four with seven seconds left, it was Stocki who took the final shot of the Pioneers season, with a missed three to end the contest 59-55.

Freshman guard Matt Oestreich led all facilitators on the night with six assists.

Junior guard Boston Johnson grabbed more boards than anyone with seven for the night.

The Pioneers went 21-52, shooting 41.2 percent from the field and 3-4 from the free throw line.

Throughout the contest there were only three lead changes and the game was tied four times.

As of now, the Pioneers plan on returning 12 of their 19 players on the roster for next season.