St. Norbert Times

Issue date: 3/8/10 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Kelsey Fenton

Media Credit: Hilary Stevens

In what started as one of the best overall seasons for both the men and women's basketball teams in St. Norbert history, turned into a devastating ending by the UW-Stevens Point basketball program.

The women, who first came into the Midwest Conference Tournament with a record of 20-3, battled Illinois College and Ripon College to earn their rightful seeding in the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament.

"There still was some bad blood [with Ripon] from last year," said junior guard Stefanie Bunday. "Having to watch them cut down our nets on our floor, I mean how can we just forget about that? I sure did, so I had no problem beating them by a handful."

Just like the women, the men played at the first ever co-hosting of the MWC Tournament at Schuldes Sports Center.

"Being able to support each other is always fun and it's something we've been able to do all year," said senior guard Denise Heuser. "It was awesome that both of our teams had the opportunity to host the tournament."

The men also played Ripon College in the first game of the tournament. After beating them, they were set to play a good Carroll University team that had bested the Green Knights just a week earlier.

"Any time we play Carroll, we know it's going to be a tough game so we knew we had to be up for the challenge they were going to present to us," said junior center Chris Peterson. "It felt great to beat them, especially in the conference championship game and a lot of the credit has to go to the fans for being as supportive as they were. I really think that made a difference in the outcome."

Something special in these seasons of St. Norbert basketball was that both the men and women played well enough to participate in the NCAA playoffs bracket.

"Our women's teams have been especially dominant in the recent past, and now we hope to continue to have the same success they have had," said Peterson. "Hopefully, this will become a continuous trend."

The women were able to host the NCAA DIII Tournament at Schuldes and faced Calvin out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the first round. The game was wild and loud as the women came from behind to put away the 12th ranked team. The following game involved a solid Pointers team that was too much for the Green Knights.

"We stuck to our goals and worked hard to get there," said senior guard Emily Otzelberger. "It was a great season and I had a blast."

The men played at UW-Stevens Point and also came from behind to defeat Hope College in their first round match up. But like the women, they were also to meet with UW-Stevens Point. A cold night of shooting lead the Pointers to victory along with their female counterparts. With the conclusion of the men's season, the team goes down in the books with the best record in the history of the SNC men's basketball program. They finished with a record of 23-4.

"It was awesome," said junior guard John Taylor. "Not too many times has that been done. It is always special to host and for both [teams] to do so well is a credit to how good both teams are."

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