Pioneers celebrate Senior Night with thrilling overtime win

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – With three seconds left in the second half, the No. 8 nationally ranked University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball team tied Wednesday's Senior Night game against UW-Eau Claire 52-52 with a Kyle Tuma (Sr./Valders, Wis.) three-pointer assisted by Quentin Shields (Sr./Chicago, Ill.). A key steal by Alex Ranney (Sr./Waterloo, Wis.) along with six made free throws and the lone field goal of the overtime secured the 60-56 Pioneer win on Bo Ryan Court.  

"The biggest thing you have to do is believe, and this group did," said head coach Jeff Gard. "It started on the defensive end of the floor. We had to get stops and we did. It wasn't always pretty, but they did what they needed to do. Credit to our senior class for leading the way and having resiliency in these tough situations."

The Pioneers finish the regular season portion of the schedule 20-4 overall and 9-4 in the WIAC while UW-Eau Claire dropped to 11-14 and 4-10 in the league. 

Oliver Barnes' (Sr./Mosinee, Wis.) three-pointer three minutes into the game gave the Pioneers their largest lead of the night, 7-2, and from then on neither team would lead by more than five points. A second chance layup by Brad Nies (Jr./De Pere, Wis.) with 4:02 left in the first half gave UW-Platteville a 27-24 lead and the score remained unchanged for the remainder of the half. 

The defensive battle continued through the second half and Ben Probst (Jr./Madison, Wis.) hit a three-pointer at the three minute mark to knot the score 44-44. The Blugolds pulled ahead 51-47 with 0:32 on the clock and a shooting foul drawn by Probst with 0:19 to go sent the Pioneer to the line to shoot two. Probst made both before UW-Eau Claire's Michael Casper made the first of two from the foul line before  Justin Stovall (Sr./Chicago, Ill.) pulled down the rebound off a missed second free throw with the final seconds ticking away. Tuma took the final shot for the Pionees and knocked down the three-pointer, taking the game into overtime. 

The Pioneers scored first as Shields made both free throws less than 30 seconds into overtime. The Blugolds evened the score a minute later, but UW-Platteville pulled ahead again on their next possession with a layup by Shields and a made free throw on the next. A Pioneer foul and two made Blugold free throws later narrowed UW-Platteville's lead to 57-56 with 2:25 on the clock. 

UW-Platteville got the stop they needed on the next Blugold possession and Blake McCann (Sr./Janesville, Wis.) went to the line to shoot two in hopes of making it a three-point game with a minute remaining. 

McCann made both and Ranney's steal forced the Blugolds turnover on the next possession to keep the score 59-56 with 0:46 on the clock. UW-Eau Claire regained possession at the 0:18 mark after a missed three-pointer, but it was Ranney again who snatched up the rebound and drew a foul off a missed three-point attempt by the Blugolds with 0:04 on the board. Ranney made the second of two free throw attempts to make it a four-point game and secure the overtime win. 

Tuma led the Pioneers with 15 points and eight rebounds. Ranney and Shields each finished with five assists. 

Stovall registered his 99^th and 100^th career blocks in the game while Shields' 13 points makes him the third highest scoring Pioneer in UW-Platteville history with 1614 career points.  

Brock Voigt went 6-of-9 from the field and 4-of-4 from the foul line for a game-high 16 points. 

UW-Platteville shot just 30.4 percent (17-of-56) from the field and 30 percent (9-of-30) from behind the arc. UW-Eau Claire finished shooting 34.5 percent (19-of-55) including 16 percent (4-of-25) from three point territory. The Pioneers made 73.9 percent of free throws while the Blugolds were 14-of-19 (73.7 percent). 

UW-Platteville enters the WIAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed and receives a double bye along with No. 1 seed UW-Oshkosh. The Pioneers will host the highest remaining seed on Bo Ryan Court next Thursday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.