The UW-Platteville men's and women's basketball teams are hosts to strong College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin teams Wednesday in Williams Fieldhouse.
The Pioneer women, fresh off two victories in the Mississippi River Challenge, face Augustana (Ill.) at 6 p.m., while the Pioneer men face Elmhurst at 8 p.m. in a battle of NCAA Division III heavyweights. Elmhurst was ranked 15th in the D3hoops.com preseason poll, while UW-Platteville was 20th.
One ticket is good for both contests.
The games will be broadcast locally on the ESPN Doubleteam WPVL1590/WGLR 1280 AM as well as student station WSUP 91 FM. The WSUP broadcast can also be heard over the web at http://www.uwplatt.edu/athletics/stream/index.html
UWP WOMEN
UW-Platteville is making its home debut after compiling a 3-2 record on the road to begin the 2005-06 campaign.
The Pioneers won their first game of the Lake Forest tournament, beating Concordia (Wis.) 57-41. In the process, however, the Pioneers lost starting guards Lisa Wubben and Emily Adrian to injuries. UWP lost 52-48 in the title game then fell to St. Ambrose 55-54 last Tuesday.
The Pioneers regrouped to win both games in the Mississippi River Challenge, topping Dubuque 48-37 and Loras 65-61.
Holly Kaiser was named to the all-tournament team at Lake Forest and leads the Pioneers in scoring at 15.2 ppg. She scored a career-high 23 points in Friday's victory over Dubuque. Junior center Liz Tesch has stepped into the starting role, averaging 11 ppg, including a career-best 23 points vs. Lake Forest. Several freshmen have made immediate impacts, including Lisa Grantman, who had 16 points, six rebounds and four steals vs. Loras.
The victory over the Duhawks was the 100th career win for Coach Tina Kuhle. She is 100-74 in eight seasons, including 16-15 in her two years at UWP.
AUGUSTANA WOMEN
Augustana seeks to reap the benefits of its rebuilding season in 2004-05, as the Vikings return five players who started at least 10 games for last year's 6-18 club.
Kelly Sikora averaged 11.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game last year, and Nancy Marcum averaged 8.5 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Both are 5-10 inside players.
The Vikings are 1-2 on the season, which they opened in the UW-Stevens Point tournament. The host Pointers won 72-51 on opening night, but the Vikings bounced back to rip Macalester, 88-31. Coach James Black saw 13 different players score in the win, led by freshman Sarah Miers with 14 points. Christine Martinson added 11 points, while Sikora and Becky Rehn each had 10.
Webster tipped the Vikings 70-62 Saturday in St. Louis. Maegan Skahill, a 5-11 sophomore, went off for 22 points and 10 rebounds. The Vikings rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit but came up just short.
UWP MEN
UW-Platteville is 3-2 overall after a busy Thanksgiving week. The Pioneers whipped Lake Michigan Conference defending champion and preseason favorite Edgewood 74-49 last Tuesday. On Friday, the Pioneers lost 86-84 at Dubuque in a game the Spartans were a whopping 35 of 42 from the line, then rebounded Saturday to beat Loras 66-42 in the Mississippi River Challenge.
"24" was the number of the weekend for three Pioneers. Both senior LeVon Crawford and junior Mark Gossens reached new career highs with 24 points against Dubuque, and junior guard Mike Jamerson hit that number Saturday vs. Loras as well. Jamerson scored 19 first-half points, including 5-5 from three-point range, helping the Pioneers roll to a 38-16 lead at the half.
Freshmen Bo Richter (15), Josh Langenfeld (9) and Kyle Tetschlag (7) tallied highs against Edgewood, while first-year player Charlie Lohoff had seven points vs. Dubuque.
ELMHURST MEN
Elmhurst is off to a 2-1 start and now ranked 22nd in the nation, according to this week's D3hoops.com poll.
The Bluejays feature one the country's most explosive players in preseason all-American Chris Martin. The three-time all-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin pick exploded for a career-high 40 points in Saturday's 87-75 win over Simpson. The Bluejays led 47-34 at the half over the same Storm team whom the Pioneers beat 73-43 in the season opener.
Elmhurst smothered St. Norbert 87-56 with a dominating shooting performance Nov. 22. The Bluejays made 80.8 percent in the first half and led by as many as 39 points in the second half. Martin scored 20 points in that game, while Chris Ihlenfeldt added 18 points. Third-team all-CCIW center Nick Michael scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Elmhurst beat the visiting Pioneers 66-62 last year. Martin and Michael each scored 14 points in that contest.