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Around
the Nation

Posted March 12, 2002

From runners-up
to giant killers
Once again, having homecourt advantage proved to be a jinx for teams hosting the sectional championships on the women's side. At least that was true for all but one team.

"It was no distraction to us whatsoever,'' said UW-Stevens Point coach Shirley Egner. "Our place was packed and it was a great tribute to our three seniors."

The Pointers haven't had any trouble with dealing with the pressure of the NCAA Tournament. Not considering the way they got in — after a second place finish in the WIAC during the regular season they lost in the WIAC semifinals and had to sweat out the NCAA conference call right down to the last name announced. Egner kept her eye on the D3hoops.com scoreboard all day Saturday, but wasn't really able to breathe easy until their name was called, the sixth of the six Pool C teams to be named.

"The benefit we drew wasn't from finishing second, but in not getting to that conference championship game,'' Egner said. "When we didn't, we carried around a lot of sorrow and disbelief for four days. That's where we got our energy from. We just play one day at time. We challenged our kids with our philosophy, which has been whatever it takes to live for the next day. Our confidence has been very good all year."

That may explain how UW-Stevens Point managed to defeat unbeaten four-time defending national champion Washington University on the road in the second round of the tournament, then got past Webster and Pacific Lutheran to get to the Final Four. The Pointers knew that they would be good during the preseason, since they returned all five starters from last year's 20-6 squad, which was enough to merit them a single first-place vote in the D3hoops.com preseason Top 25.

"We've always been hovering around third and fourth place in this league,'' said Egner, now in her 13th season. "We swept Eau Claire and Oshkosh, the two teams that have traditionally been the best, during the regular season. I think that defined where we were going."

The Pointers, who have never gone beyond the first round of the postseason under Egner, have the one strength common of western-based teams.

They have good size, led by 6-0 senior center Kari Groshek, the WIAC Player of the Year, who averages 15.3 ppg and shoots 56% from the field. Sophomore guard Andrea Kraemer creates matchup problems at 5-10, and is the only other player averaging double digits.

The reason for that, says Egner, is that someone else steps in as a third contributor every game. Sometimes that may be steady senior Amie Schultz, the team's all-time leader in minutes played, or Cassandra Heuer, the sophomore forward who brings energy off the bench as the sixth man.

"Our defense is our trademark,'' Egner said. "We play a solid halfcourt man-to-man that feeds into our offense. We'll run when we get the opportunity and we'll shoot the 3-pointer when it presents itself. We're primarily blue-collar. We smash the ball inside a lot."

The hope is that can overpower the other three potential opponents. A little bit of good fortune won't hurt either.

"We know we were lucky to get in, and we were lucky to be able to beat Washington,'' Egner said. "Hopefully the luck will be with us in Indiana too."

Notes for Around the Nation are compiled with the help of sports information directors across the country. If you have suggestions or information for this column, please send it to mark@d3hoops.com.

Previous columns
2007-08 columns
March 6: Faith restored
Feb. 27: John Jay, Cinderella
Feb. 21: No safety net
Feb. 14: Ursinus better enough
Feb. 8: Hope-TMC on collision course
Jan. 31: Plattsburgh's big shot
Jan. 24: UMD answers call
Jan. 18: Like Bosko, like son
Jan. 11: Keystone stakes
Dec. 13: Unstoppable
Dec. 7: UWW aiming deeper
Nov. 30: Coach's shadow lingers
Nov. 15: Strong duo
2006-07 columns
2005-06 columns
2004-05 columns
2003-04 columns
2002-03 columns
2001-02 columns

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