STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The St. Olaf College men's basketball team fell in a 20-point hole at halftime and could not recover in a 72-50 road loss to UW-Stevens Point on Sunday afternoon at Quandt Fieldhouse.

St. Olaf (1-7) trailed unbeaten UW-Stevens Point (6-0) by a 41-21 margin at the half before being outscored by just two points in the second half. The Pointers led for all but 14 seconds in the game to hand the Oles their seventh consecutive defeat, with five of the seven losses coming to Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) opposition.

Junior Kobe Kirk was the lone double-digit scorer for St. Olaf with 14 points on 6-for-13 shooting, as the Oles shot 16-for-47 (34.0 percent) from the field in the loss. The Oles were 4-for-17 (23.5 percent) from three-point range and 14-for-21 (66.7 percent) at the free-throw line. First year AJ Uhl recorded seven points, while fellow first years Luther Tostrud and Liam Roche had six apiece.

Malik Abdul-Wahid and Seth Miron combined for 41 points on 16-for-27 shooting for UW-Stevens Point. Abdul-Wahid had 24 points, nine rebounds, three assists, four blocked shots, and four steals while shooting 10-for-16 from the field and 4-for-5 from behind the arc. Miron was 3-for-6 from three-point range as part of a 17-point performance. Abdul-Wahid and Miron entered the game shooting just 5-for-26 (19.2 percent) from long distance on the season.

St. Olaf trailed just 12-10 after a Kirk jumper with 13:29 to go in the opening half before going scoreless for nearly four minutes until a jumper by senior Dashiel Walker midway though the half. Tostrud hit one of his two three-pointers in the game inside the final nine minutes of the half to get the Oles within 20-15, but the Pointers went on a 10-2 run to open up a 30-17 lead with 6:12 left.

Late in the half, Kirk made back-to-back jumpers to reduce St. Olaf's deficit to single digits with 4:35 to go, but UW-Stevens Point scored the final 11 points of the half to take a 41-21 lead into the locker room. Abdul-Wahid and Miron combined for 31 of the Pointers' 41 first-half points, as the hosts turned 13 turnovers into 15 points in the opening 20 minutes.

UW-Stevens Point maintained a lead of at least 17 points for the entire second half, as St. Olaf got 17 of its 29 second-half points from its bench. For the game, the Pointers held double-digit-point advantages in points off turnovers (28-9), points in the paint (32-18), and fast-break points (15-2).

St. Olaf will begin Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play with a trip to Saint John's University for a 7 p.m. tip-off on Wednesday, Dec. 4.