Issued: February 1, 2003

BLUGOLD MEN LOSE BATTLE TO STEVENS POINT

STEVENS POINT - The UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team fell to ninth-ranked UW-Stevens Point 82-73 here tonight at "The Dog Pound."

The Blugolds jumped out to an early 5-0 lead on a three-pointer and jumper from Ryan Wietor (Jr.-West Bend/West). The Pointers would get back to within one but Eau Claire answered with a 10-2 run highlighted by two more Wietor three-pointers. The nine point lead would be their highest of the game.

Stevens Point would answer the Blugold run with an 11-2 run of their own to tie the game at 19. From there the scoring went back and forth with the Pointers taking a 36-35 into halftime.

Wietor led all scorers at half with 12 points on four of five shooting. The Blugolds shot 52.2 percent for the half including five of eight from three-point range.

Eau Claire and Stevens Point continued to battle nip and tuck for the first ten minutes of the second half until the Pointers went on a 7-0 run to take a 63-56 lead with 6:42 remaining.

Stevens Point increased their game-high lead to 11 on a jumper from Neal Krajnik. The Blugolds whittled the lead back down to five with 22 seconds remaining but could get no closer as the Pointers hit ten of ten from the line to close out the victory.

Jason Larson (Sugar Land, TX/Stephen F. Austin) led the Blugolds in scoring with 20 which moved him into 13th place on the all-time Eau Claire scoring list. Wietor added a career-high 19 points including five of seven from long range. Dan Archambault (So.-Oshkosh/West) also added 19 points to go along with four assists.

For the game Eau Claire shot 48.9 percent from the field compared to 52.1 percent for Stevens Point. The rebounding was even at 28 a piece but the Blugolds were able to turn nine offensive rebounds into 17 points.

The loss dropped the Blugolds record to 4-7 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and 12-8 overall. The victory improved Stevens Point's record to a WIAC best 9-2 and 17-2 overall.

Eau Claire will travel to La Crosse to take on the Eagles in a WIAC game. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Eau Claire-Stevens Point Box