Women’s Basketball
This season the UW-Platteville Pioneer women’s basketball team has been on a bumpy ride. The Pioneers have been subject to injuries this season, injuries that made head coach Tina Kuhle take out key players, junior guard Stacia Nemitz, freshman forward Melanie Walker, and sophomore center Ashley Callahan.

This season the Pioneers have a rather hard conference to compete in due to a hand full of nationally ranked teams.

Junior forward Dru Schneider and senior guard Charity Stotmeister say the team needs to be able to commit the entire forty minutes of the game in able to play well.

Photograph by Kate Olsen

“The [women] do a great job coming out strong in the first half and playing some rather impressive basketball but the second half is different,” coach Kuhle said.

While playing UW-Whitewater Jan. 21, UW-P managed to keep the then second ranked Warhawks on their toes. After the first half of play was over, they managed to keep the lead by four points, going into the second half leading 36-32. That game was an example of what the hardest thing has been to accomplish this season for the ladies, playing the entire 40 minutes of the game.

Jan. 28, the Pioneers played UW-Oshkosh, and for the first time in 20 years the Pioneers swept the Titans.

“This was a great game, and the [women] played their hearts out,” coach Kuhle said. “Lisa Grantman broke the school record for the most 3-pointers in a career.”

The Pioneers faced the UW-River Falls Falcons Jan. 31 and moved to sixth place in the WIAC, winning 61-43. Their record is now 7-12 overall.
According to the Sports Information Web site, UW-P never allowed the deficit under 10 points the rest of the game.

The Pioneers look to play the Warhawks at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11 at the Williams Fieldhouse.

Men’s Basketball
The No. 4 ranked UW-Platteville Pioneer men’s basketball team continues to roll through WIAC play with wins against UW-Oshkosh and UW-River Falls this past week.

UW-P traveled to UW-O Jan. 28, demolishing the Titans 74-50.
“We did a really good job playing solid team defense, forcing Oshkosh to take tough shots, and the team rebounding was exceptional in this game,” head coach Paul Combs said.

The Pioneers took the lead at the start of the game on a pair of free throws by senior center Jeff Skemp, and jumped out to a seven-point lead just five minutes into the game. The Pioneers continued to pull away with back-to-back 3-pointers by senior guard Charlie Lohoff, giving UW-P a 23-9 lead with 6:38 left to play in the half. Junior guard Curt Hanson added two more 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the half to send the Pioneers into the locker room with a 33-19 advantage over the Titans.

Photograph by Karmen Mallow

The Pioneers opened the second half on a 6-0 run until UW-O ended its three minute drought to make it a 34-21 game. A 3-pointer by junior guard Mike Shaw with 9:48 left to play put the Pioneers up 54-37. The Pioneers converted on nine free throw attempts in the final five and a half minutes to go to secure the impressive 74-50 victory.

The Pioneers showed a balanced offense with four players hitting double figures. Skemp led the way with 21 points and seven rebounds. Lohoff added 17 points, including five from behind the arc. Hanson and Shaw each added 10 points for the Pioneers.

“Offensively, we had good balance of post play and shot the ball to the highest percentage from the perimeter,” Combs said.

UW-O dropped to 4-6 in conference play, 10-9 overall.

The Pioneers took care of business again on Jan. 31 against UW-River Falls, with a 72-51 win over the Falcons.

The two teams went back and forth in the first 10 minutes of play before knotting up the score at 17-17 with 8:39 left in the first half. The Pioneers held onto a six point lead after free throws from sophomore forward Eric Wall to give UW-P a 26-20 lead. Skemp hit a jump shot at the end of the half to give the Pioneers a comfortable 30-10 lead.

Pioneer sophomore guard Nick Allen hit a lay up at 16:03 in the second half to increase the lead to 38-21. UW-RF hit back-to-back three-pointers and a lay-up to cut the lead down to five, 38-33, but Lohoff answered back with two 3-pointers of his own to push the lead back up to 44-35. A dunk by Skemp with 2:11 left would be the icing on the 72-51 victory.

“We kept feeding Jeff in the post and that opened things up for everybody else,” Allen said.

According to Sports Information Web site, the Pioneers shot 72 percent in the second half. UW- P was led by Skemp with 26 points and for the second game in a row Lohoff scored 17 points.

The Pioneers out-rebounded the Falcons 32-18, Wall led the team with nine boards.

“Our two seniors [Skemp and Lohoff] really stepped up and made plays for us in the second half,” Combs said. “It gave us a great offensive balance and an inside/outside attack.”

UW-RF drops to 3-7 in conference play, 9-10 overall.

UW-P improves to 10-1 in conference play, 18-2 overall. The Pioneers will be on the road against the UW-Whitewater Warhawks at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11.

“We only have two home games and tough road games ahead of us,” Allen said. “The games at Whitewater and Stevens Point will both be big challenges.”