Shocked was the word that most easily came to mind to describe members of the UW-Platteville community after the Pioneers loss to UW-Eau Claire on Feb. 25.

The 19th-ranked Pioneers, fresh off of a 17 point victory over the Blugolds the previous week, simply came out flat and never recovered.

From the outset, UW-P struggled against the UW-EC defense. The Blugolds coming out in a 2-3 zone defense were able to double team Jeff Skemp and hold him without a point for the first six minutes of the game.

Good outside shooting from sophomore guard Mike Shaw shot them back into a man-to-man defense, but by that point, the Pioneers were down by as many as 18 points.

Sophomore guard Curt Hanson goes up for a lay-up during an 84-80 loss to UW-Eau Claire on Feb. 25. The Pioneers season record is 19-7 and they will now have to wait to see if they will receive an invitation to the NCAA tournament.

On the defensive end, the Pioneers were unable to stop sophomore guard Geoff Probst who did just about anything he wanted to on the offensive end of the floor throughout the entire game. Also 17 point contributions from Dan Beyer and Ryan Shea helped the Blugolds hold the lead from the tip to the final horn.

On the offensive end, the Pioneers struggled to get the ball inside to Skemp who had a performance that was among his best of the entire season. With 21 points and 17 rebounds Skemp truly owned the lane and the Blugolds had no answer. Without a slow start that featured four missed free throws and several short shots, Skemp could have gone for 30 points and helped push the Pioneers over the top.

The hardest thing to understand is the last three minutes of the game when the Pioneers seemingly forgot everything that got them back into the game: namely good rebounding, good defensive spacing and taking good shots.

Forced lay-ups, missed assignments on defense and not boxing out gave UW-EC the opportunity to hold the lead when they had done all they could to try and give it away. They escaped with an 84-80 victory and advanced to the next round of the WIAC playoffs.

The thing that is so frustrating about this entire situation is that a great season of hard work now lays in the hands of the NCAA selection committee. It didn’t have to be this way.

After beating Stevens Point on Feb. 23, the Pioneers controlled their own destiny and could have had two home games to all but secure an NCAA birth by getting to 20 wins on the season.

Now looking back on a great season, it’s hard to know what will happen next. One thing is for certain, this Pioneer team will go down as one of the most talented in program history, and if they aren’t invited to the tournament this year, the disappointment of the end of this season will drive them to be even better next year.