Pioneers take down #1 UW-Stevens Point
January 26, 2005
UW-Platteville beat top-ranked UW-Stevens Point 73-58, moving into a first-place tie in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Wednesday in front of a vocal crowd of 1,761 in Williams Fieldhouse.
The Pioneers and Pointers are now tied atop the conference at 8-2. The Pioneers, winners of six straight games, improved to 13-5 overall. The Pointers, ranked number one by D3hoops.com, fell to 16-2.
UW-Platteville all-American Brad Reitzner, who was held to 8.8 points per game in his previous nine meetings with the Pointers, exploded for 31 points to match his four-year career high. He made 4-5 three-point shots in the second half, including back-to-back long-range bombs with the shot clock running down that gave the Pioneers a 62-47 lead with 4:09 to play.
For the game, Reitzner made 9-15 shots and 8-9 from the line. As a team, the Pioneers shot 66.7 percent from the field, including a sizzling 72 percent (13-18) in the first half. In fact, Reitzner was the only Pioneer who missed a field goal in the first 20 minutes.
The Pointers were also hot in the first half, making 10-19 from the field to trail by just one, 30-29.
While the first half featured nine lead changes and seven ties, the Pioneers opened the second period with a 13-2 run and never trailed again. Reitzner scored six, and Mark Gossens four during the first six minutes of the second half. The Pointers were never able to come closer than seven (46-39) the rest of the way.
Brandon Temperly added 13 points, while Gossens had 10 for the Pioneers. Gossens was coming off the WIAC Player of the Week Award as well as a spot on the D3hoops.com Team of the Week. LeVon Crawford had eight points and seven rebounds, including an alley-oop dunk and a rebound slam. (Check out the photo gallery for his first dunk sequence.)
Jason Kalsow and Nick Bennett each scored 17 for the Pointers. Kalsow added six rebounds and four assists to his game.
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