Box Score
STEVENS POINT, WI – Playing catch-up, like dogs chasing cars, hasn’t boded well for a UT Dallas team hurtling down the final lap of its 2009-10 season.
The Comets ran out of gas in the American Southwest Conference Championship game 12 days ago. They fizzled out on Friday, too.
Curtis Davis showered a career-high 27 points on No. 5 UW-Stevens Point in a Sweet Sixteen contest played at the Quandt Fieldhouse, but the Pointers, remedying every UTD surge, held on to a 74-67 win to advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA III Tournament.
The loss brought an abrupt end to the Comets’ second straight trip to the “Big Dance,” where UTD is now 3-3 all-time.
“I’m so proud of the way our kids played out there,” said UTD coach Terry Butterfield. “It came down to making plays, and our kids did a great job of persevering and making some.”
Without starters Brandon Greene or Jimmy Witten, who was sidelined after a knee injury in the ASC title tilt, the Comets’ (24-6) attempt to clone last year’s Elite Eight appearance fell just short as the Pointers (26-4) shot a staggering 58 percent from the field throughout.
UW-SP, back-to-back Division III champions in 2004 and 2005, advanced to 15-1 in games played on their own Bennett Court this season. The Pointers are now 22-6 in NCAA postseason action, and will lock horns with Illinois Wesleyan (23-7) tomorrow at 7:00 pm to determine which team will be booking a flight for Salem, VA, next weekend.
“It was a tremendous environment to be in,” Butterfield said of the Quandt Fieldhouse, which housed an estimated sellout crowd of 2,800 on Friday. “It was a privilege to be associated with a fine place of tradition like this.”
The Pointers leapt out to a 6-0 start and led the rest of the way. Costly turnovers and a porous defense gave way to a double-digit UW-SP advantage midway through the first half, but the Comets zeroed in on the Pointers before recess.
UTD’s sluggish play in the first two minutes after halftime allowed UW-SP to stockpile a 51-38 lead. That’s when Davis and Chris Barnes teamed up to score the Comets’ next 24 points, cropping the deficit to three at several junctures.
Davis drilled a trio of 3s during the stretch, including a crowd-quieting fallaway from the right corner, and Barnes tallied six straight points off back-to-back conventional three-point plays.
UTD trailed 65-62 with less than four minutes remaining, but the Pointers took advantage of errant free throw attempts—the Comets were just 3 of 6 down the stretch—and drained freebies of their own. UW-SP shot 14-for-18 from the charity stripe throughout, while Jared Jenkins’ free throws put the nails in the coffin with 23 seconds left.
Davis, a transfer from McMurry, was 11 of 17 from the field and missed only one of his five hurls from beyond the arc. He chipped in with six rebounds, two assists and two steals during UTD’s second-half push.
“Curtis performed magnificently,” said Butterfield. “His effort tonight is indicative of the competitive player that he is. He just put us on his back tonight.”
Barnes and leading scorer Scott Rodgers each registered 11 points, Jordan Eppink tossed in 10 and Jared Fleming contributed eight. Fleming doled out a game-high six assists.
UW-SP was anchored by point guard Matt Moses, whose game-winning free throws helped the Pointers sneak past Carleton College in the opening round of the NCAA Div. III Tournament. Moses pumped in 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting, while Jenkins and back-up floor general Jerrel Harris scored 17 and 16, respectively.
The loss ended the careers of five Comets—Rodgers, Eppink, Fleming, Garrett Hillen and Andy Maish. Eppink entered the UTD record books this season as the school’s all-time leading rebounder, while Hillen compiled more blocks than any other player in program history. Rodgers led the team in scoring (15.7 ppg) en route to earning ASC All-Conference honors, as well as being honored as an Academic All-American by CoSIDA and ESPN The Magazine.