NCAA Tournament Bracket: Interactive | PDF
Game Coverage (7 p.m. tipoff): WVOE Radio | Live Stats

STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Before you read this article, click here to cue Luther Vandross's rendition of One Shining Moment, the song written by David Barrett about the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, to officially put you in the mood for March Madness.

Northwestern College (Minn.) begins its NCAA Division III Tournament run – the Eagles' third straight time in the Big Dance – at 7 p.m. on Saturday against the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a program that won the national championship in 2010. NWC earned the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference's (UMAC) automatic qualifier into the NCAA postseason after a 79-73 victory over Bethany Lutheran College in the league postseason tournament last Saturday. The NCAA game will be the first ever meeting between Stevens Point and Northwestern, two teams that look similar to one another on film. The Pointer and Eagles systems both run a motion offense, a philosophy that originated from former Stevens Point coaches Dick and Jack Bennett, the brothers for whom the UW-SP court is named for.

About the Pointers
The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) regular season champion, Stevens Point enters Saturday's game with a 21-5 overall record. The home team on the scoreboard, UW-SP is one of two teams from the WIAC in this year's tournament (Wis.-Whitewater is the other), having earned an at-large bid. 2013 represents the Pointers' seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Bob Semling. After losing starting point guard and leading scorer Tyler Tillema to a season-ending injury on December 12, Point has been led by the trio of Trevor Hass, Joe Ritchay and Clayton Heuer, all of whom average between 10.9 and 12.0 points per game. Ritchay is one of two Pointers with more than 60 assists this season, while Heuer's 5.2 rebounds per contest lead the team. Stevens Point has outscored its opponents by just over 10 points per game throughout the 2012-2013 campaign, having made 48 percent of its attempts from the floor. The Pointers' 10.0 turnovers per game are fourth-best in the nation, while Stevens Point is very consistent at the free throw line where they've made 77.1 of their attempts, a mark that is second among all Division III teams.

About the Eagles
In addition to winning the UMAC Tournament title for the third straight year, Northwestern won its 24th regular season league championship. The Eagles have won three UMAC trophies in the four-year tenure of seniors Wade Chitwood (Grinnell, Iowa/Grinnell), Tom Gisler (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville), Lance Westberg (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) and Ellis Libby (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson), who have led NWC to an 81-31 overall record in that time span. Northwestern currently has four top five marks in the most recent version of the national statistics rankings including three-point field goal percentage (41.5), three-point field goals per game (10.0), assists per game (17.9) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6). Speaking of rankings, Gisler, the reigning, two-time NCAA Division III three-point shooting champion, is currently third in the same category with a 49.6 clip from downtown. Gisler, who was featured in Thursday's Minneapolis Star Tribune, has made 70 or more three-point baskets in each of the last three years. Chitwood, a UMAC All-Conference First Team member for the second straight year, leads Northwestern with 17.1 points per game, with Westberg and Gisler close behind at 13.3 and 12.9 points per contest. Libby has 145 assists to his name this season as his 5.4 per game are 22nd when compared to the rest of the Division III field of players. All four seniors have made better than 35 percent of their three-point attempts in 2012-2013.

Ticket Information
For fans who pre-purchased tickets through the Stevens Point ticket office, those tickets will be available at will call beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday just inside the front doors of the Quandt Fieldhouse (enter on Fourth Street). Fans planning on attending Saturday's game who have not yet purchased tickets can obtain them at the door. Ticket prices are $8 reserved, $6 for general admission (adults) and $4 for general admission (students).

Parking
Free parking for Saturday's game is available in Lots F and X [click here for campus map]. On-campus parking meters are not enforced on the weekend.