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It was the epic comeback that almost resulted in a thrilling victory.
Almost.
After being down 27-10 at halftime, the Mineral Point boys basketball team outscored visiting Southwestern 20-6 in the third and made the game a dead heat down the stretch, but fell just short in a 55-53 SWAL loss.
"We can't keep getting down by 15 or more points to good teams and expect to come back," said Pointer coach Dan Burreson. "It's happened three times recently, and we can't continue to live like this."
The first quarter was back and forth until the Wildcats closed the period with two consecutive three pointers, one each from Calub Heileman and Aaron Kaiser, to take a 16-8 lead at the end of one.
The Pointers struggled mightily in the second stanza with Travis Steffes' basket at the 3:33 mark being the only points of the quarter. Mineral Point had fallen behind 27-10 at the break.
The third quarter was a complete turnaround as the Pointers outscored Southwestern 20-6, starting with three points each from Ian Ewers and Sy Staver. Two threes from Dakota Poad also highlighted the frame as Point had crawled back within 33-30 entering the fourth.
Points were exchanged for the first half of the final period, and Logan Benish had the hot hand for Point, tallying seven points in the first four minutes. But Southwestern put together a 6-0 stretch that spanned from 4:09 to 2:54 and regained some critical momentum. The ending got a bit interesting as Staver hit a desperation three with seven seconds left, but Joshua Smith hit two free throws for the Wildcats to keep them in front by four. The Wildcats chose not to guard Mineral Point on the next play, which left Poad wide open for a three. Unfortun-ately for the Pointers, they then called a time out they did not have, which resulted in a technical foul, and with only a tenth of a second on the clock, it didn't matter much anyway.
Southwestern was led by Smith with 19 and Aaron Tranel with 12.
Poad was the top Pointer with 15 and Steffes added 11.
"It sounds like a cliche, but we need to play a solid 32 minutes of basketball, and we haven't done that lately. We need to play like it matters from the start, especially against a team like Southwestern, who is arguably the second best team in the league," continued Burreson.
"The second half was much better, especially our defense. Logan gave us great energy off the bench and Dakota hit some big shots. But Southwestern hit their free throws and did just enough to win," concluded the coach.
The Pointers are at Riverdale Friday and host top ranked Cuba City Monday.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
SW: 16-11-6-22--55
MP: 8-2-20-23--53
BOX SCORE
SOUTHWESTERN (fg-ft-tp) 55: Heileman 1-0-3, Kephart 2-5/6-9, Kuhl 2-1/2-5, Smith 6-7/7-19, Kaiser 1-4/7-7, Tranel 6-0-12. Totals: 18-17/22-55. Fouls: 16. Three pointers: Heileman 1, Kaiser 1.
MINERAL POINT 53: Staver 2-1/2-7, Poad 4-3/4-15, Benish 3-2/3-9, Ewers 2-2/2-6, Wendhausen 1-0-3, Steffes 2-7/10-11, Schultz 1-0-2. Totals: 18-13/19-53. Fouls: 18. Three pointers: Poad 4, Staver 2, Wendhausen 1.