Everything's coming up WIAC

Feb 19, 2025
UW-La Crosse athletics file photo by Jim Lund
 

On Wednesday night in D-III, we got ever closer to a WIAC dream and a bracket-maker's nightmare as five WIAC women's teams in the tournament became even more possible. Plus, come drive the 101 with us. Check out the night in D-III women's and men's basketball.

The day started with five Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference women's basketball teams in the top 52 spots in NPI, and it only got better on Wednesday, as No. 52 UW-Stevens Point defeated No. 20 UW-Stout, while NPI No. 6 UW-Oshkosh, No. 26 UW-Whitewater and No. 42 UW-La Crosse all won. But the big blow for the WIAC 5-pack came from the Pointers, as they overcame 33 points and six steals from Raegan Sorenson to defeat Stout 85-71. Alexa Thompson scored 26 points, 10 of them in the fourth quarter, to lift the Pointers, who improved to 17-7, 7-6 in the WIAC. 

In La Crosse, UWL defeated UW-River Falls 62-56 behind 17 points and 11 rebounds from Lauryn Milne. It was the fifth win in the past six games for La Crosse, which got the huge NPI boost from beating UW-Oshkosh on Saturday. 

When the day started, Scott Peterson's projections had UW-Stevens Point with a 41% chance and La Crosse with a 33% chance of making the tournament as an at-large if they did not win the WIAC. Ater tonight, a quick recalculation shows it's now 66% and 33%. (Those projections include tonight's results, but not any updates to Scott's Efficiency Margin.)

Keene State sent the Mass-Dartmouth women to their second consecutive loss and damaged the Corsairs' chances at hosting NCAA Tournament games as the Owls won 71-61. Melanie DeMeo hit a three with 5:04 left to put UMD up 55-52, but Keene State went on a 15-1 run, including responding when Mass-Dartmouth fouled to prolong the game. The Owls (11-12, 7-7 Little East) went 11-for-12 from the foul line during their run. Brynn Rautiola scored 18 while Samantha Lee added 16 for Keene.

Kate Herlihy scored a career-high 36 points and broke the program single game record with nine three-pointers to help lift Rowan to a 65-61 NJAC win at Stockton Wednesday night in the regular season finale. The win locked up the fourth seed and a first-round home game for the Profs, who improved to 17-8, 13-5 in the NJAC. Rowan will host Kean. Herlihy was 13-of-19 from the floor including a staggering 9-of-12 from downtown. A full 25 of her game-best 36 points came in the second half with 17 in the third quarter alone. TCNJ grabbed the top spot in the NJAC playoffs with 72-63 win at Montclair State. Nina Branchizo paced the Lions with 20 points and also became the career leader for three-pointers at TCNJ (20-5, 16-2 NJAC). Alyssa Craigwell scored a career-high 30 points for Montclair State, which will be the second seed in the NJAC playoffs. 

SUNYAC transplants Brockport and Geneseo battled for first place in the upcoming Empire 8 tournament, with the Golden Eagles prevailing 75-62. The game was close until Brockport opened the fourth quarter with a 16-1 run and took a commanding 73-54 lead midway through the period. Cam Tooley tallied 15 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for Brockport (22-3, 15-1 E8), which will host Elmira in Saturday's tournament quarterfinal. SUNY Geneseo (19-6, 14-2 E8) will be the second seed and host Alfred.

Conference tournament play got underway with the UEC favorites advancing through the first round. All-American Jordan Carpenter scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 40 minutes for Penn State-Harrisburg and the Nittany Lions knocked off Lancaster Bible, 60-51. Bryn Athyn, Notre Dame (Md.) and St. Elizabeth also advanced to Saturday's UEC quarterfinals.

Washington & Jefferson secured the No. 1 seed in the Presidents' Athletic Conference tournament by recording a 97-51 victory over Thiel in its regular season finale Wednesday evening. The Presidents close the regular season with a 21-4 overall record and an 18-2 mark in conference play. This marks the fourth-straight season that the Presidents will enter the conference tournament as the top seed. Bryn Bezjak paced the Presidents with a season-high 27 points.

Emmy Allyn matched her career-high with 24 points, including six 3-pointers to lift WPI to an important 65-45 victory over Wellesley in a NEWMAC women's game. With their third straight win, the Engineers improve to 11-13 overall and 4-6 in NEWMAC action, moving into a tie for seventh place in a conference which sends eight teams to its conference tournament. WPI moved into a tie for seventh place with Coast Guard entering the final day of conference play on Saturday with Clark, Wellesley and Wheaton all a game behind at 3-7.

Wednesday men's basketball

Montclair State secured the top seed in the NJAC tournament, which starts Saturday, as the Red Hawks defeated TCNJ 84-70. That win put Montclair alone in the top spot in the conference with a 14-4 mark, at 19-6 overall. Montclair has won 11 of its past 12 games headed into the conference tournament. Ramapo and Stockton each won to remain one game behind at 13-5, with Ramapo winning the tiebreaker to claim the No. 2 seed in the tournament. Stockton defeated Rowan 104-101 in overtime and will be the No. 3 seed. After Rowan used a 15-5 run late in regulation to tie the game at 82, the teams went to OT at 87-87. But Stockton scored the first nine points in the extra session and held Rowan at arm's-length the rest of the way. Kean will be the No. 4 seed and will host fifth-seeded TCNJ, while Rowan will be the sixth seed and will play at Stockton.

Antonio Redding dropped 47 points for Delaware Valley as the Aggies upset MAC Freedom leader Stevens 78-72. The win keeps Del Val in contention for a conference tournament spot. Stevens is 9-4 in conference play, and Arcadia, Delaware Valley, DeSales and Misericordia are all tied at 7-6. That, plus King's at 6-7, means there are five teams in contention for the final three playoff spots.

Rowan was just one of six men's basketball team to score 101 points on Wednesday night. Justin Nixon and Alex Eyink each scored 25 points to lead Capital to a 101-86 win vs. Wilmington. The University of New England dropped a century-plus on Curry as they defeated the Colonels 101-93 behind 34 points from Jayden Thornton. Rose-Hulman rolled past Earlham 101-78 after 29 points from Cole Pride. And Augustana got 35 points from Tyler Knuth en route to defeating Wheaton (Ill.) 101-76. And the night capped off with Whittier joining Club 101 as well, as Division III's leading scorer, Aamari Smith, poured in 30 points, just above his average of 27.4, to lead the Poets to a 101-76 win against Caltech.

And for the record, D-III men's baasketball also saw 103 from Pitt-Bradford, the 104 scored by Stockton, 109 from Aurora and Grinnell, and 110 from No. 12 St. John's.

Carleton improved to 16-8 overall and 9-6 in the MIAC, securing the No. 4 seed in the MIAC tournament by defeating the recently awarded top seed, No. 21 Gustavus Adolphus, 73-61. Gustavus entered the contest shooting .490 as a team, seventh-best in Division III, but the Carleton defense limited the Gusties to a season-worst .345 shooting line. The Gusties' top three scorers — Spencer Swanson, Wyatt Olson, and Myles Barnette — came into play averaging a combined 33.9 points on .541 shooting, but the Knight defense limited the trio to a cumulative 18 points on 7-of-22 (.318) shooting. Luke Harris led the Knights with 17 points. Gustavus had won 12 consecutive games and had won 21 in a row against MIAC opponents.

Ashton Price's spinning floater through contact put Wooster ahead with 41.8 seconds remaining, and the Fighting Scots denied No. 19 Denison its first shot at clinching an outright North Coast Athletic Conference title with a 75-72 win. Jaiden Cox-Holloway stole the ball from Denison star Darren Rubin and upped Wooster's lead to 71-69 at the charity stripe with 19.6 seconds remaining. Denison's Trevor Reed missed a driving hook shot from about five feet out in the final five seconds. Wooster EJ Kapihe secured the rebound and made the two free throws. Denison's Kellen Smith hit a 3-pointer to pull the Big Red within 73-72 with just over a second remaining before Wooster Jamir Billings hit both free throws with 0.4 on the clock. Denison was able to find Scotty Dean on the inbounds pass, but a three-quarter court shot did not connect.

And the United East Conference tournament got underway. There are so few opportunities for a 12 seed to even get into a conference tournament in Division III, and in fact, the only 12 seed in all of Division III men's basketball is still dancing, as Penn College won at fifth-seeded St. Mary's (Md.), 94-85. Gavin Barrett scored 27 points and Livingston Cross added 24 points and a game-high 15 rebounds in the win. 

And on the day in which Northland College announced that it would be closing at the end of the school year, the school's two basketball teams, the Lumberjacks and the LumberJills, each took it on the chin. The final Northland men's basketball road game ended in an 86-65 loss at Northwestern (Minnn.), as the team fell to 0-24 despite 15 points and 10 boards from Jahlani Thornton, and the Northland women also fell at Northwestern, 98-35, as they slid to 0-20. The teams finish up Northland's basketball career with home games on Saturday against Martin Luther.