The UW-Platteville men's basketball team overcame a 31-point second-half deficit to defeat an experienced club team, USK Praha, Saturday night in Prague, Czech Republic.
The Pioneer women cruised to a 100-27 win over their USK Praha counterparts, as both UWP teams finished their Eastern European Trip with 2-0 marks.
Mark Gossens made a critical steal with the Pioneers up by two points in the closing moments. He was fouled and made both free throws with four seconds remaining, sealing the 92-88 win. Jeff Skemp led the Pioneers with 21 points, while Sean Krause added 16 and Brad Reitzner 15. Reitzner hit five three-point baskets, and Gossens finished with 11 points for the Pioneers, who still trailed 75-57 at the end of the third quarter.
The Pioneer women jumped out to a 30-6 lead after one quarter and cruised to the international victory. Holly Kaiser led UWP with 16 points, while Michelle Hardyman and Emily Adrian each added 11. All 13 Pioneers scored.
Photo Gallery, from Berlin (5/24/05)
Photo Gallery, sent by assistant coach Todd Adrian
Jeff Skemp's layin with 10 seconds remaining lifted UW-Platteville to an 88-86 victory over the Salzburg All-Stars Wednesday night in Salzburg, Austria.
The Pioneer women had an easier time, dispatching UBBC Salzburg 84-44.
UW-Platteville is on a 10-day trip of Eastern Europe and has games set for Saturday night. The women face the USK Praha club team in Prague, Czech Republic, while the men were scheduled the Czech Republic National Under-21 team.
The Czech Republic National Under-21 Team went 2-3 in the 2004 European Championship pool play, then lost to Lithuania and Russia in the medal rounds. (Note: This game was cancelled, and the men played USK Praha, as originally scheduled.)
Photo Gallery, taken from Salzburg site
Sean Krause is a sophomore guard from Fort Atkinson and also a student-worker in the Sports Information Office. He will share his thoughts periodically throughout the trip.
"Today was a lot of fun and pretty interesting. We took bus tours around Berlin and got off to see some of the sights of Berlin. Some of the stops were the Brandenburg Gate, which is along the Berlin Wall and where people needed passes to get from East Germany to West Germany. We also saw Checkpoint Charlie, which was the entrance of the Berlin Wall to the American sector. That was pretty cool. Tomorrow, we go to the Olympic Stadium and some other places on our last day here."
Brad Reitzner adds his thoughts, as the senior from Stoughton gives us an e-mailed update: "Yesterday we left Prague and drove to the town of Dresden. There we saw the VW plant which made for some interesting test driving experiences. We then had a great German meal beforeÊa tour of Dresden. We then went to Berlin.
Today in Berlin we took a bus tour around the city, where we saw the Jewish Mueseum, the Brandenberg Gate, Check Point Charlie, and the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall left, that is a mile long. We then had the rest of the day for walking around Berlin."
"We didn't do a lot because we rode on the bus for quite a while after leaving Prague. We stopped in Dresden, Germany, and took a tour of the Volkswagon factory. They make a luxury car that's really nice. Then we got on the bus and went to Berlin."
"We left from Prague this morning, stopping at Karlovy Vary . It was a cool little town with a lot of shops. That's where the natural springs were. I think there 13 different natural springs, which were interesting to see. Tomorrow we leave for Berlin. I'll try and check in, but we are pretty busy with tours. We've seen a lot here."
"Before the game, we toured the city of Prague, seeing the Prague Castle, the Jewish Town, the Cemetery, Museum and Synagogue. We played our games at a really small gymnasium, and the women won 100-27. They pretty much blew them out the whole game. The guys won 92-88. We were down 20 at halftime and 31 at one point, the coaches said, although I don’t remember the exact score. We came back and won at the end."
"We're in Prague right now, on Friday night. On Thursday, we visited a salt mine outside Salzburg, which was pretty fun. We went quite a ways down and saw how they mined the salt. Then we went up in the mountains and took a boat ride up in the lake. The last thing we did was stop at a documentation center, which had a whole bunch of displays, everything from before the Nazis took over to after the war. We also walked through a bunker system, which was pretty interesting. On Friday, we left early in the morning. The first stop was at a concentration camp called Mauthausen. That was very interesting, and we learned a there. We saw the long staircases where prisoners had to carry rocks up from the quarry. That was there main jobs. We saw all the barracks, which have close to 50 different memorials now. It was one of the better tours we’ve had. We then went to the city of and had lunch. It’s a beautiful city. We then drove the rest of the day to get to Prague. We were able to get to the gym and practice. The game against the Czech Republic Under 21 team has been changed, and we'll play against the team we were originally scheduled, USK Praha."
"We won our first game 88-86 in regulation. Skemper hit a shot with 10 seconds left to put us up by two and then we stopped them. We were up 17 at halftime, then they came back in the second half to tie it up with under a minute to play.
"This morning (Wednesday), we walked around Austria, although it was raining, unfortunately. We went to Mirabell Gardens, St. Peter's Abbey and the Salzburg Cathedral. We visited some Sound of Music sites, particularily the gazebo. Probably the most fun we had was when went to the Hellbrunn Watergames and Castle. There were some booby traps where water shot out of the walls, floors and walkways, so we all got soaked.
Tomorrow we were supposed to go to Hitler's Eagles Nest, but that's going to be snowed out. There's snow up in the hills, so we can't get up the roads.
As far as our game on Saturday, we might be playing the Czech Under-21 National Team, so we're going to be playing a better team than we orginally thought."