Stevens Point Journal from Stevens Point, Wisconsin • Page 9

a 00 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 01 01 a a a a a a a Sports Saturday, March Stevens 5, 1983 Point Journal 9 David vs. Goliath setting for NAIA tilt here Monday BY DON FRIDAY Journal Sports Editor To Marian College basketball coach Dick Knar, it seems like a bit of David going up against Goliath. In this case, however, Goliath (UWStevens Point) isn't far removed from the days when it too was cast in the heavy underdog or David role. There's no question, though, that all the ingredients are present for each school to fall into that mode Monday in the NAIA District 14 semifinal clash at Quandt Fieldhouse. Marian College(16-8) advanced by upsetting Lakeland College at Sheboygan Thursday night, 72-66, is a tiny (530 enrollment) school which is almost unknown in state basketball circles and in only its second year of NAIA affiliation.

UW-Stevens Point, on the other hand, is ranked No. 9 in the nation by the NAIA, has an enrollment of more than 9,000 students carries an imposing 23-3 record compiled in the face of one of the most difficult small college schedules in the country. Neither Knar nor Pointer coach Dick Bennett will describe the upcorning clash (7:30 p.m. tipoff) as an apparent mismatch. "Point is a heavy favorite and deserves to be," said Knar, a 25-year coaching veteran who is in his second season at the Fond du Lac school.

"We don't have much visibility and most people have never heard of us. "We're just happy to be coming down there Monday and I can tell you one thing for sure my kids won't lie down for anybody. This is just great for our program. "Point, with the exception of Marquette and Wisconsin, is the best basketball team in the state this season and they'd probably do a heckuva job against those two clubs too. "Every time they play, it's like a clinic on how to play defense.

They are just so well coached. We hope to have a few things up our sleeve although I know coach Bennett is too smart to allow his kids to look past us." The Sabers, like the Pointers, won a conference championship this spring although the Wisconsin Conference of Independent Colleges can hardly be classed in the same league as the WSUC. Knar, however, insists his team played a "legitimate" schedule this season. "We've beaten three members of the Midwest Conference (Ripon, Lawrence and Chicago)," he pointed out. "'We also beat a good Division 2 team in Minnesota-Morris which owns a win and a triple overtime loss to St.

John's of Minnesota which runs a highly-re- BALL ATTRACTS CROWD SPASH's Eric Lind (white) fights for the loose ball while surrounded by three Marshfield players in second half action of their WIAA Regional game Friday night at the SPASH Fieldhouse. Tiger players Jerry Stargardt (25) and Jim McDonald are reaching in. (Staff photo by Steve Leahy) West beats Eagle River MADISON, Wis. (AP) Devine scored one goal and Dan McCormick added a pair of insurance goals as Madison West defeated Eagle River 3-0 in semifinals of the state public high school hockey tournament Friday. West, 20-2, will play Superior, 12-10, seeking its third consecutive title, in the championship game today.

Superior defeated Madison Memorial 3-0 in a semifinal game earlier Friday on goals by Tim Desmet, Kurt Hammann and Rick Barton. Devine scored at 10:03 in the first period on an assist from McCormick and Rick Fleming. McCormick scored the first of his goals unassisted on a power play at 11:53 of the second period and added a second goal in third period on a power play at 8:47 with assists by Fleming and Devine. West goalie Greg Ammerman had 14 saves. Dan Mehr had 43 saves for Eagle River, 20-2.

Desmet scored on a 5-on-3 power play at 2:25 of the second period. Hammann added an unassisted goal at 7:26 of the third period and Barton. scored another power play goal at 12:35 of the final period. Superior goalie Scott Crase had 16 saves. Memorial goalie Steve Boll had 34 saves.

Memorial, 10-11-1, was runnerup last year. Warhawks meet Millikin for title DECATUR, III. (AP) Millikin will take on Wisconsin-Whitewater for the championship and Beloit will play William Penn in consolation tonight in the finals of the NCAA Division III Midwest basketball regional tournament. Wayne Dunning scored 18 points, 16 during a second-half surge, to lead Millikin past Beloit 66-49 in the nightcap of the semifinals Friday night. Andre McKoy hit 20 points to lead Wisconsin-Whitewater to a 62-47 win over William Penn in the opener.

Beloit matched Millikin basket for basket to earn a 14-14 tie midway through the first half, when Millikin made its move to take a 27-18 halftime lead. With Dunning leading the charge, the winners steadly opened the margin. Eddie Taylor and Ken Jackson each scored 13 points for Millikin. Dave Smothers netted 17 to lead Beloit. William Penn held the ball for most of the first half, which ended with Wisconsin-Whitewater leading 19-17, but garded program." If the Sabers have an achille's heel this season, it has to be lack of size.

"We're sort of like a doughnut--nothing in the middle," quipped Knar who is adept at throwing out one-liners. "I sometimes wind up playing with four guards but our forte is excellent quickness. Our guards are as good as you'll see anywhere." While the Pointers have won nine in a row, Marian comes here with a seven-game winning streak. "I've always liked to play an up-tempo kind of game," Knar said. "Because of our lack of size, we're forced to go with a lot of gimmick defenses.

We'd like to apply full-court pressure on defense but I don't know if we can get away with that against a team like Likely starters for Marian Monday will be forwards John Hermanson, a 6- 2 junior from Prescott who is averaging 6.1 points per game and Ron Mulderow, a 6-0 junior from Chicago (18.1); center Dan Komasinski, a 6-6 senior from Michigan City, In. (10.0); and guards Doug Bartelt, a 6-0 junior from Mayville (16.6) and John Allen, a 5-10 senior from Milwaukee (9.5). Top replacements are 6-6 Fond Lac Springs junior Tom Nickodem up front and 6-0 Chicago soph Jorge Aroche in the back court. The Sabers lead District 14 with an offensive average of 80.6 but Marian is also allowing 76.6 on defense. The team is shooting 45 percent from the field and 65 percent from the line.

Despite lack of size, Marian is averaging about two rebounds per game more than the opposition. Knar scouted the Pointers in a recent game at Oshkosh while UW-SP aide Jerry Gotham took in Marian's win over Lakeland. "Jerry was impressed with their quickness and discipline," Bennett said. "Because they use so many guards, their ball handling is a strong point. They are a good, hustling outfit, smart and well coached.

It's obvious they are limited size-wise but they do what has to be done." Bennett sees no chance that his team will take Marian lightly. "It's always been our philosophy to respect all of our opponents but fear none," he said. "'There's no reason to feel otherwise at this point. "Coach Knar is a really personable guy and a credit to the game. My limited contacts with him have all been positive.

He's likeable and is doing a fine job in his present circumstance. "I knew when he job at Marian that it wouldn't be long before he came up with something. He's done that wherever he's been." Bennett said his squad is in good shape physically. Tim Skalmoski, 6-6 senior center who missed Tuesday's La Crosse game with an ankle injury, should be ready to go again. The Pointers will open with their usual lineup of 6-4 John Mack, 6-6 Fred Stemmeler and 6-6 Brian Koch in the front line and 6-2 Terry Porter and 5-10 Brad Soderberg in the back court.

Bennett isn't making a lot out of the fact that his team has played a more difficult schedule. "Who you played really doesn't make much difference in a one-game series," he remarked. "I'm sure some of the schools we've played in recent years like Creighton, Nebraska, Colorado State and Air Force never heard of us before either." Despite a pronounced overall height advantage, Bennett wouldn't say that his team will deviate from its normal offensive concept. "We certainly don't want to force the ball inside," he said. "That would play right into Marian's hands.

We'll be ready to take whatever their defense gives us." The Pointers may not have their usual vocal student support Monday because the school is on spring break. "We have to be able to handle any circumstance," Bennett said. "We can't say because the students are gone we won't be effective. We do hope to have a good crowd from within the Tigers end Panther season By JIM KRUEGER Journal Sports Writer The late show at the Stevens Point Area Senior High Fieldhouse Friday night turned out to be an early end to the season for the SPASH boys basketball team. The Panthers picked the wrong night to have a sub-par performance as Marshfield downed SPASH, 54-44, in the nightcap of the WIAA Class A Regional semifinals.

The victory sends Marshfield (9-10) into the regional championship game against unbeaten and top-ranked Wisconsin Rapids (19-0) tonight at 7 o'clock. The Red Raiders advanced with a 65-46 whipping of Schofield in the first game. The Panthers, who finished with a 9- 10 mark, had trouble getting their offense untracked. After falling behind early, SPASH was unable to make a serious run at the Tigers, thanks in large part to cold shooting (38 percent) from the floor. "It's unfortunate that this was one of our poorer games in the last few weeks," said SPASH coach John Schell.

"It came at a time when we couldn't afford to play like we did. I feel bad because we've been playing up to our potential as of late. But tonight we didn't. community." The Pointer-Marian winner will take on the winner of another semifinal game between UW-La Crosse and UWParkside at Kenosha Monday night in the District 14 championship game at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

If the Pointers win Monday, they will host the title game. The District 14 champion advances to the NAIA National Tournament at Kansas City, Mo. (Kemper Arena) Monday through Saturday, March 14-19. POINTER POOP-Marian and UW-SP have never met on the basketball court, although the liberal arts, denominational (Catholic) school at Fond du Lac has been in operation since won its league title with an 8-2 record, the only losses coming on the road to Milwaukee School of Engineering and Milwaukee Cardinal WCIC will change its name a year from now to Lake Michigan Conference when Lakeland and Milwaukee Concordia become was 14-16 in his first season at Marian a year ago. The Sabers made the playoffs and beat Milton in the first round before being eliminated by Lakeland which, in turn, was beaten by the Prior to Thursday's game, Lakeland owned two close wins over has also had coaching stops at Milwaukee Marquette High School, Milwaukee Don Bosco (now Thomas More), Wis.

Rapids Assumption (1965-66) and UW-Fond du Lac. He coached at the latter school 13 years and won 10 league titles, plus the state junior college championship in 1975... Knar for many years also coached the American Legion baseball program at Fond du Lac before relinquishing the helm a year ago. The program has since been a transfer from Ripon, is a former college teammate of Pointer guard Pointers are 90 at Quandt Fieldhouse this game will be broadcast by Radio Station of tickets are avalalble and will be on sale at the door Monday. "Marshfield's defense dominated our offense.

We had some basic breakdowns and there was no one to stop those breakdowns. We made two baskets right at the start of the third quarter but then we couldn't keep things going. We again had turnovers at crucial times." Marshfield coach Bob Luchsinger said the story of the game was "our intensity on defense and Jeff Wagner." Wagner, the Tigers' leading scorer, missed last week's 48-41 Tiger loss to SPASH with an ankle injury. But he was healthy for this game and made his presence known by scoring 15 points and helping hold SPASH's Cary Kottke to only 10 points. Kottke tallied 27 against Marshfield last week.

"Wagner fronted him (Kottke) and didn't let him get the ball down low said Luchsinger. "For the most part we played good defense. The kids worked hard on defense." Marshfield broke a 4-4 tie by scoring six straight points midway through the first quarter. The Tigers held that sixpoint bulge, 14-8, at the end of the period. SPASH was unable to get within five points in the second quarter.

Jim McDonald sank two baskets in the final two minutes of the quarter to send the Tigers in at halftime with a 27-18 lead. A layup by Jeff Olsen and a basket from the lane by Kottke at the start of the third quarter cut the Tiger lead to five, but Marshfield then rattled off three baskets in a row to raise the lead to 11, 33-22, with 4:25 remaining. SPASH was forced to foul in an attempt to get the ball back in the fourth quarter but the Tigers responded by sinking 12 of 15 free throw attempts in the final period. Marshfield's patience on offense resulted in only three Tiger field goal tries in the fourth quarter, but all were layups. "We were very conscious of our shot selection in the second half," said Luchsinger.

"We didn't want to take any bad shots. Then when we had the 10-point lead with five minutes left, we just wanted to make layups, shoot free throws and pass the ball. "When SPASH got behind, they had to press and that worked to our advantage. We handled the ball well and got a few easy baskets." While SPASH took 53 shots and connected on just 20, Marshfield put the ball up only 30 times but sank 17 of those for 57 percent. The big difference was at the free throw line where Marshfield was 20 of 24 compared with only four of five for SPASH.

Marshfield turned the ball over 19 times in the game and SPASH 14. Both teams had 22 rebounds. Wagner's 15 points led all scorers while Mike Smith added 14. The rest of the Marshfield squad did its share as well, as seven others broke into the scoring column. Kottke, Seth Eckholm and Bill Nelson each had 10 points for the Panthers.

"It's a sad way to end the season when you look at how we were playing good basketball before this," said Schell. "But this season was an aboveaverage one, considering the inexperience and injuries we had. The kids worked hard in practice and had some fun in the games." Panthers concluding their prep playing careers were Kottke, Greg Stoffel, Randy Woyak, Tom Molski, Pat Jack and Dave Molski. MARSHFIELD (54)-Wagner 5-9, 5-9, 15; Smith 5- 8, 4-4, 14; Stargardt 1-4, 4-4, McDonald 2-2, 2-2, Scheuer 1-2, 0-0, Grancorvitz 0-0, 2-2, Younker 1-1, 0-0, Schloesser 2-4, 1-1, Mullholland 0-0, 2-2, Totals 17-30, 20-24, 54. SPASH (44)-Olsen 2-5, 0-0, E.

Lind 2-2, 0-0, Kottke 5-16, 0-0, 10; Eckholm 5-7, 0-0, 10; Woyak 2-8, 0-0, Stoffel 0-0, 0-1, T. Molski 0-5, 0-0, Nelson 3-9, 4-4, 10; D. Molski 1-1, 0-0, Jack 0-0, 0-0, Totals 20-53, 4-5, 44. Marshfield 14 13 9 18 -54 SPASH 8 10 8 18 44 Fouled out- -Olsen. Total fouls- 20, Marshfield 9.

Rebounds -SPASH 22 (Kottke 9), Marshfield 22 (Smith 9). Turnovers- SPASH 14, Marshfield 19. Officials--Kersten, Schoen. Lourdes wins in OT, Royals bombed By MIKE O'BRIEN MILWAUKEE (AP) Todd Meier had a frustrating first half, but Oshkosh Lourdes' 6-foot-8 center played life a high school All-American after that. Meier, rated among the country's top prep forwards by several scouting services, poured in seven of his 26 points in overtime, leading Lourdes to a 56-49 victory over Madison Edgewood in the state private schools' basketball tournament Friday night.

Lourdes, 194, advanced to Class A semifinals at 9 p.m. tonight against Milwaukee Marquette, 21-2, which swamped Wisconsin Rapids Assumption 86-43. In other A quarterfinals, Whitefish Bay Dominican whipped cold-shooting Waukesha Memorial 59-40 and Racine St. Catherine dumped defending champion Green Bay Premontre 54-40. Dominican, 10-13, and St.

Catherine, 18-5, were to meet at 2:45 p.m. today. Meier, held to four points in the first half, scored the first three points in the overtime period, and Lourdes held on for its 16th successive victory. The score was 45-45 at the end of regulation after a basket by Edgewood's Yago Colas with 13 seconds left. "We wanted to score first in overtime so they couldn't hold the ball, and we did," Meier said.

"When they had to chase the ball when we had the lead, that's when our passing offense works best." Meier, who has signed to play at Indiana University, also had 13 rebounds and blocked five shots. Lourdes Coach Kevin Heaney credited Meier for not losing poise after his frustrating first half, when Edgewood double-teamed him whenever possible. "Anyone else with his notoriety might have been frustrated, but when the fourth quarter came the real Todd Meier came through," Heaney said. "I think you'll see a different team tomorrow," he said. "The kids were pretty uptight.

The kids came down last year and lost right away, so they wanted this real bad and they didn't play with the looseness that we normally have." Edgewood Coach Joel Maturi said he "never doubted we would win." "It could have been, but it wasn't," he said. "If we ever got a lead or the ball when it was tied in the fourth quarter or the overtime, we would have spread them out. But we never got the chance." Pat Foley, a 6-6 junior, scored 19 points for Marquette, the state's thirdranked team which steadily pulled away after Assumption trailed 20-16 after one quarter. "The second quarter may be as well as we've played all year," Marquette Coach Paul Noack said. "We shut off their break.

Their guards didn't penetrate as much and we made them shoot from outside." Darin Chambers, Marquette's star guard, scored only two points against Assumption's box-and-one defense, but set up Foley for several layups. "I was surprised they tried the boxand-one on us because we have very balanced scoring," Noack said. "Everybody can score, including about three off the bench." "I was worried that we'd get down 12- 0 or 14-0 and have to fight back," Assumption Coach Bob Olson said. "We didn't do that. We had our chances early in the game, but then we fell apart.

That was a surprise." Dominican used an unorthodox defense against Joe Marchese, Memorial's leading scorer for the season. "We decided that Marchese is such a good player that we had to do something special against him," Dominican Coach Bill Hintz said. "We used a variation of a defense we've used all year and took Marchese out early. Memorial Coach Pat Farrell said his team wasn't confused by the Knights' variation of a 1-3-1 zone defense which pitted one of Dominican's guards manto-man against Marchese. "We had the shots we wanted." he said.

"But we missed about five inside shots and we must have missed about 15 outside. We had been shooting about 64 percent for the year. "I called two time-outs and told them to try to get the ball inside and take their time, but they were tight, just happy to be here and not used to being here. It took the kids a while to realize that it was just another game" Memorial, which beat Dominican by 9-and 11-point margins during the regular season in the Metro conference, missed its first 20 shots against the Knights' quick-shifting zone defense. The Crusaders didn't score until reserve Dean Mlachnik sank a free throw with 57 seconds left in the first period, which ended with Dominican ahead 17-1.

Memorial later trailed 23-3. Darron Suttle led Dominican with 20 points. Premontre opened in a zone defense, hoping to force St. Catherine to shoot from outside. But the Cadets couldn't screen out all three of the Angels' rangy baseline players 6-foot-5 Peter Sinsky, 6-4 Vic Hammer and 6-8 sophomore Dave Mueller.

St. Catherine led 39-23 before Premontre closed to within 39-29 at the end of the third quarter. Darin Maccoux and Kurt Rotherham led a comeback that cut St. Catherine's lead to 44-40 with 1:58 left, but the Angels regained momentum with a layup by Sinsky and a threepoint play by Bob Letsch. "We felt we could go inside," said Angels Coach Bob Letsch, "If Maccoux was on Mueller, we would go inside to Sinsky or Hammer.

"We've got the height. That's why we stay in the 2-3 zone. We try to make you beat us from outside. "It was a typical game for us in that we got a lead and let them back in the game," he said. "But they're defending champs and have a lot of pride.

Once we Wisconsin scores By The Associated Press Basketball Millikin 66, Beloit 49 UW-Whitewater 62, William Penn 47 Girls NAIA Playoffs UW Bay 83, 70, Marquette UW-Parkside 79 47 Bucks, 108, Dallas 102 MILWAUKEE (108) Johnson 12-24 3-3 27, Mix 24 0-0 4, Lister 4-5 2-3 10, Moncrief 10-21 11-13 31, Ford 3-6 0-0 6, Catchings 1-6 0-0 2, Mokeski 1-1 0-0 2, Winters 1-8 0-0 2, Pressey 7-13 2-3 16, Criss 4-7 0-0 8. Totals 45-95 18- 22 108. DALLAS (102) Aguirre 12-23 11-14 35, Vincent 10-17 2-2 22, Cummings 5-9 3-3 13, Davis 8-17 0-0 16, Turner 0-1 0-0 0, Garnett 1-4 2-2 4, Nimphius 24 0-0 4, Ransey 3-14 0-0 6, Blackman 14 0-0 2, Spanarkel 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 42-94 18-21 102. Milwauke 30 31 24 23 -108 Dalls 33 20 31 18 102 Fouled -Aguirre.

Rebounds -Milwaukee 47 (Moncrief 11), Dallas 46 (Vincent 9). Assists- Milwaukee 26 (Moncrief, Ford, Pressey 4), Dallas 30 (Aguirre, Davis 6). Total fouls-Milwaukee 25, Dallas 25. got the lead, I think I got too conservative." Premontre Coach Roy Smits said he thought the Cadets would pull it out after they cut their deficit to four points. "I thought we had the momentum and they were getting shakey," Smits said.

"On the baskets they scored at the end, we were right there. We had a hand on the ball and they got a couple of 3-point plays, but we were in the defense I wanted." Smits said St. Catherine was "too big and too good." "They're talented obviously," he said. "We had to play super basketball the whole game. We came close to it." WISAA boxes PREMONTRE (40) McKeough 3 2-2 8, Denny 0 2-2 2, Lesage 4 0-0 8, Pfluger 0 0-1 0, Rotherham 7 0-2 14, Maccoux 3 2-5 8, McGuire 0 0-0 0 Perret 0 0-0 0.

Totals 17 6-12 40. ST. CATHERINE (54) Sinsky 5 5-7 15, Hammer 2 1-3 5, Mueller 4 8-12 16, Bronaugh 1 2-3 4, Letsch 5 4 5 14, Jackson 0 0-1 0. Totals 17 20-31 54. Green Bay Premontre 8 14 7 11-40 Racine St.

Catherine 12 13 14 15 54 Fouled out-McKeough, Pfluger, Maccoux. Total fouls- Green Bay Premontre 25, Racine St. Catherine 14. McKoy and teammate Mark Linde hit three quick baskets after the intermission to open up the scoring. Wisconsin-Whitewater improved its record to 23-4 while Millikin raised its record to 21-6.

Beloit fell to 18-6, while William Penn dropped to 18-7. Badger women lead Big 10 meet MADISON, Wis. (AP). Cathy Branta won the two-mile run Friday to help. Wisconsin take the lead after four events in the annual Big Ten girls indoor track meet.

She was timed in 10:05.74 as Wisconsin accumulated 28 points to Michigan's 22 and Purdue's 12. Diane Dixon of Ohio State won the 300- yard dash in a conference record :33.83. EDGEWOOD (49), Flemming 21, Brener 0 0-0 0, Schernecker 4 Hanrahan 3 2-4 8, Colas 4 1-2 9, Riesen'1 0-0 2, Holm 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 7-12- 49. LOURDES (56) Smits 2 3-5 7, McDermott 1 1-2 3, Meier 9 8-10 26, Hirschberg 3 5-7 11, Weber 4 0-1 8, Engstrom 0 1-1 1.

Totals 19 18-26 56. Edgewood 8 16 9 12 4-49 Lourdes 6 16 13 10 11 -56 Fouled out-Schernecker. Total foulsMadison Edgewood 20, Oshkosh Lourdes 12. Technicals-Edgewood (too many timeouts), Meier (hanging on rim). ASSUMPTION (43) Brey 0 2-2 2, Austin 6 1-2 13, Bushman 3 0-1 6, Dorshorst 3 3-6 9, Joosten 4 0-0 8, Swenson 0 0-1 0, North 0 0-1 0, Wickstrom 0 0-0 0, Jeffrey 0 0-1 0, Link 0 3-5 3, Thompson 1 0-0 2.

Totals 17 9-19 43. MARQUETTE (86) Bridich 6 0-0 12, Foley 8 34 19, Matthiasson 2 0-0 4, Houston 3 0-0 6, Chambers 1 0-0 2, Lambo 0 0-1 0, Hodan 2 0-0 4, Schlidt 2 0-1 4, Von Rueden 4 0-0 8, Casey 2 2-3 6, Schaefer 0 2-2 2, Schnepp 0-2 6, Johnson 3 5-6 11, Hoeft 1 0-1 2. Totals 37 12-20 86. Wisconsin Rapids Assmptn 16 6 13 8 43 Milwaukee Marquette 20 23 23 20-86 Fouled out--none. Total fouls -Wisconsin Rapids Assumption 19, Milwaukee Marquette 20.

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