Box Score Wisconsin-Stevens Point 77, Illinois Wesleyan 76 - Box Score, March 12

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The magical Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball season came to an end on Friday, March 12, with a 77-76 loss to Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the NCAA Division III sectional semifinal at the Shirk Center.

It was a putback basket by the Pointers'  Ashley Avercamp with 2.2 seconds remaining following a miss by Andrea Flease. that provided the winning score. Avercamp had 18 second half points and finished with 20.

The Pointers (24-6) will play Hope (30-1) at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 13 at the Shirk Center with the chance to continue play next weekend in the NCAA championship round.

The Titans had 76-75 lead after a basket by senior Christina Solari with 40 seconds left and the Pointers had a chance to score but missed. Solari got the rebound and was fouled but missed the free throw with 13 seconds left and the Pointers got the rebound that led, after a time out, to the final score.

Christina Solari led IWU (whose season ends with a 28-2 record) with 17 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Olivia Lett had 12 points, junior Stacey Arlis score 11, while junior Nikki Preston and sophomore Karen Solari each had 10 points.

Illinois Wesleyan shot 51 percent from the field in the game (30 of 59) and limited the Pointers to 42 percent field goal shooting (27 of 65). The Titans managed four of 12 from 3-point range and made 12 of 21 free throws (.571).
Stevens Point won the rebounding war, 42-36, and forced 19 turnovers while admitting to only 17.
The Pointers connected on six of 16 3-point efforts and made 17 of 23 free throw attempts (.739).

The Titans led by seven, 44-37, at halftime after Karen Solari finished a four-point play and led by as many as 11 at 50-39 with 18:01 to play in the game. The Pointers went on a 13-4 run to close to within two at 54-52 with 13:23 to go and, after falling behind 60-54, scored six straight points to tie the game at 60-60 with 8:14 left in the game.
With the game tied at 64-64, Avercamp made a 3-pointer to give UWSP a 67-64 lead and Flease followed with a fastbreak layup to make the score 69-64 with 4:57 left. Two conventional three-point plays by Arlis got the Titans back ahead, 70-69.

Cassie Bandow scored 18 points with a team-high nine rebounds, Flease added 17 points and Britta Petersen had 14 before fouling out.