Five Pioneers seniors ended their athletic careers Wednesday, Feb. 25 at Bo Ryan Court, with a 61-55 loss to the Pointers of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
The Pioneer women’s team finished the season 15-11 overall and 8-8 in the WIAC.
Three of the Pioneers’ seniors have been at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for four years while two of the seniors transferred in as juniors to play for two years.
“The girls that I’ve played with have been awesome,” said Alyssa Krajco. “We were all really close. Us three [Krajco, Rachel Cropp, Taylor Buckmaster] have stuck it out and that’s been awesome.”
The women also had help from the Maryville University transfer, Stacy Clark, who averaged 50 percent from the field and scored 787 points in two years.
Keely Schulz, the second transfer student, scored 264 points, forced 24 steals, grabbed 168 boards, and started all 26 games this season compared to zero last year.
In the first half of the game, the Pioneers shot 36.7 percent from the field, going 11-for-30, as well as 2-for-10 from three-point range.
“Shots just didn’t fall. Everyone struggled tonight. That was the hardest part because you start to get discouraged,” Clark said.
At the end of the period, the final player to score was the Pioneers’ sophomore guard Mykaela Brandt with a layup to end the period up by three, 26-23.
The Pointers took control of the game in the second half within the first five minutes.  At the 15:43 mark the two teams were tied at 33. This was the closest the Pioneers would come for the remainder of the night.
In the second period the Pioneers were out-rebounded 23-16 and shot 35 percent compared to the Pointers’ 43.
From the 15:43 mark the Pointers went on a 10-3 run over the next six minutes to expand their lead, 41-36 with 9:17 left.
Head coach Megan Wilson said, “You have to get stops. And once you get stops you look to push the ball a little bit, but we just didn’t have that.
Brandt’s three point brought the game within two, 57-55, with 18 seconds left, but the Pointers hit all four of their free-throw baskets at the line and stifled any hope for the Pioneers.
The game resulted in a 61-55 season-ending loss to the Pointers.
Krajco led all scorers on the year with 456 points to add to her career total of 1,237, along with 605 rebounds.
Referring to the time with her teammates, Krajco said, “They have been awesome and I cannot thank them enough. I owe every point to them.”
In her two year career at UW-Platteville, Clark racked up 787 points and accumulated 324 rebounds.
”We wanted more wins, we wanted to keep going, but we had a great season and we came a long way and every single person developed so much throughout the season,” Clark said. “We all started playing together so well. It will be hard to be done.”
The Pioneers plan on returning nine players for the 2015-2016 season.