Box Score
See related piece by John Feinstein in Washington
Post
Photos by Jamie Martin
SALEM, VA – A forty-minute championship
contest for the Ephs was short-circuited by a 22-5 run over six
minutes in the second half by the Wisconsin-Stevens Point Pointers
who topped the Ephs 78-73 to win the 2010 NCAA crown.
With the win Stevens Point improves to 29-4 and the loss gives
the Ephs a final ledger of 30-2 and snaps their 21-game in-season
win streak. This marks the second time Wisconsin-Stevens Point has
defeated the Ephs in the championship contest, having also
prevailed in 2004, 84-82.
“I thought the difference in the game was the assist to
turnover ratio,” said Eph head coach Mike Maker. “They
had a 2-1 and we were 1-2 … we played well enough to win, we
just ran out of time. We needed more scoring opportunities and they
got six more shots than we did.”
“We teach humility through success,” said Maker.
“We're going celebrate a successful season tonight, but
we are disappointed we could not bring a championship back to
Williams.”
“It was another classic game between two great
opponents,” said Stevens Point head coach Bob Semling.
“We showed tremendous courage with 10 minutes left to finish
the game with a victory.
A free throw by Troy Whittington at 11:02 boosted the Eph lead
to 10, 54-44. but over the next six minutes the Pointers fashioned
a 22-5 run to take a 66-59 win with 5:02 left.
A three-point play by Jared Jenkins and a three from the left
corner by Dan Tillema got the Pointers back to within 6, 56-50.
After an empty trip down the floor by Williams Stevens Point got
another three from Tillema and then tied the contest on a three
from the top of the key by Louis Hurd at 8:12.
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| Troy Whittington/by Jamie Martin
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A soft left hand baby hook by Troy Whittington gave the Ephs a
58-56 advantage, but Tillema re-tied the contest with a jumper of
his own. Whittington then made one of two charity tosses to
give Williams a one-point lead at the 7:30 mark. Unfortunately, for
the Ephs, that would be their last lead of the contest.
A driving layup by W-SP's Matt Moses that he banked off
the glass from the right side gave the Pointers the lead 60-59 with
just under six minutes left. Jared Jenkins then scored the next six
points of the game with a three and a traditional three-point play
and with 5:02 left the Pointers were up 66-59.
The Ephs refused to quit and a James Wang steal from Matt Moses
at midcourt resulted in Wang hanging in the air in the lane,
drawing contact, and laying the ball high off the glass for two and
a free throw opportunity. Wang's make from the line cut the
Pointers' lead to two, 69-67, with 1:15 left.
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| Nate Robertson/by Jamie
Martin
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Tillema then hit two free throws and Blake Schultz hit one of
two and Stevens Point had a 71-68 lead with 41 seconds left. Troy
Whittington was called for a foul on Matt Moses in the corner on
the in-bounds pass and with 39 ticks left, Moses made both free
throws and the Pointers were up 73-68, but not for long as Nate
Robertson burst into the paint and hit a floater off the glass to
make it 73-70 with 33 seconds remaining.
Again the Ephs came with full court pressure and this time
Robertson was called for fouling Moses in the backcourt and the
Pointer senior again converted both shots and the lead was back to
five, 75-70.
With 15 seconds left W-SP's Jerrel Harris made it 76-70 by
making one of two charity tosses. The Ephs' last thrust was
highlighted by a deep three from Blake Schultz with eight seconds
left, cutting the Pointer margin to three. However, the
Pointers escaped the Ephs' full court pressure and Matt Moses
made the final score 78-73 with a layin.
Blake Schultz led the Ephs with 20 points, Troy Whittington
added 19, James Wang netted 17, while Alex Rubin chipped in with
11. Matt Moses led four Pointers in double figures tallying a
game-high 22. Jared Jenkins notched 17, Dan Tillema had 15 and
Louis Hurd netted 10.
The Ephs out rebounded the Pointers 35 to 26, but lost the ball
14 times on turnovers to just eight errors for the Pointers.
With the 37 points between them Schultz (615) and Wang (554)
became the highest scoring Eph duo in history with 1169, eclipsing
Mike Nogelo '98 and Matt Hunt '99 who tallied 1129.
Schultz is the fourth player to go over 1500 points (1528) in his
career and is only the second Eph to score 600 in a season.
NCAA All-Tournament Team: Tyler Sanborn, Guilford; Ephs
Troy Whittington and Blake Schultz, and from Wisconsin-Stevens
Point Jared Jenkins and the tourney's Most Outstanding
Player, Matt Moses.
First half
A Jared Jenkins three with 6:56 to go in the first half gave
Stevens Point their largest lead of six, 24-18, but the Ephs ran
off nine of the next 12 points to take a 27-24 lead. Eph
buckets came from three inside hoops by Troy Whittington (one a
smashing dunk) and a short jumper from James Wang.
The Ephs led 32-28 at 1:22 when Alex Rubin found Blake Schultz
on the left side and Schultz buried a 17-footer. Jenkins came back
for Stevens Point with a layup and a steal to bring the Pointers to
within two.
The Pointers had a chance to tie the contest before intermission
with Jenkins on the foul line for two with one second left.
Jenkins, however, was short on his first attempt and then missed
the second and a fall away put back by Scott Hoelzell was off the
mark.
Williams led at the break 32-30 on nine points from Schultz and
Whittington. The Pointers were led in scoring by Matt Moses who
dropped in a dozen.
Williams was plus eight on the boards 18-10 with Schultz and
Whittington both grabbing five. Matt Moses led the Pointers on the
boards with three.
Williams again was victimized by turnovers in the opening 20
minutes with 9, while Stevens Point only turned it over four times.
The Ephs scored 18 points in the paint to W-SP's 8.
Williams hit on 54% of their floor attempts 13-24and Stevens Point
connected on 12-27 for 44%.
Notes: On hand for the championship
weekend were Chuck Abba, Sumant Bhat, Ben Coffin, Mike Crotty from
the 2003 Eph national champions and former head coach Dave
Paulsen… by prior determination the W-SP side of the bracket
was designated the home team… coach Maker could not go five
seconds without receiving a call or text message with former
associates, friends, family members and Ephs checking in to wish
him well… at the Williams reception after the win over
Guilford coach Maker paid tribute to the two Eph coaches before him
who got the Ephs to the Final Four, AD Harry Sheehy and
Paulsen… Maker had to attend a TV meeting at the Civic
Center where TV timeouts and pre-game routines were set and he had
to miss a team meeting to appear… the Ephs are chartering
home on Sunday because there are just too many folks in Salem to
get the team out on flights that would make it possible to get them
all home at once… Ephs will leave Roanoke at 9:00 AM and
arrive in Albany at 10:30 AM, beating the trip down by a mere three
or five plus hours depending on which group you were on going to
Roanoke… asst coach Shaun Morris was the detail guy on the
trip for the Ephs, if you needed to know where the Ephs were and
what they were doing Shaun had the answer… W-SP head coach
Bob Semling was an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico
with former Eph Point guard Grant Farmer '98 who played of
the Ephs in two Final Fours (1997 & 1998)… an NABC
Senior All-Star game preceded the championship tilt and the East
All-Stars with Adam Choice of Cobly and Terrell Hollins of Brandeis
topped the West 109-106 in OT… famed author and sportswriter
John Feinstein (A Season on the Brink) was on hand to cover the
title tilt for the Washington Post.
