The Point Park Pioneers are carving a path that could lead them to the highest winning percentage in a season for a men's four-year college basketball team in Western Pennsylvania.

	Last week revisited Highlights from individuals and teams in district colleges last week: Washington & Jefferson's Jon Koch, a 6-foot-2 senior from Plum who recently became W&J's all-time leading scorer with 1,744 points, is the Presidents' Athletic Conference men's basketball player of the week for the second consecutive week. He averaged 24.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in two games. Chatham College's Erica Bilski, a sophomore guard from Seton-LaSalle, set a Chatham career record with 107 3-pointers. Allason Holt tied a school record with six blocks in an 80-61 loss to Notre Dame, Md. She holds the season record (57) and the career record (79). Edinboro (13-1) rose two spots to sixth, the highest since the school moved to Division I in 1986-87, in the USA Today/InterMat/NWCA Division I Top 25 wrestling poll. Penn State (12-5) advanced one position to 11th. Pitt and West Virginia received votes. Thiel, with five individual champions in the 10 weight classes, won its eighth consecutive PAC wrestling title and 15th in the past 17 years. Damian Rose, a freshman from Freedom, was the outstanding wrestler of the tournament, winning the 141-pound title with two pin fall victories. The Pitt men's track and field team tied for 24th with UCLA, Providence and Iona in the Trackwire 25.

Point Park, 27-1 and ranked third in NAIA Division II, completes its regular season tomorrow at Seton Hill and plays host to the American Mideast Conference South champion Feb. 24 before heading to Branson, Mo., for the national tournament.

The Pioneers already have clinched the AMC North championship.

"What I like best about this team is when one guy isn't getting it done, somebody else picks it up," Point Park coach Bob Rager said of the Pioneers, who have won seven games in a row since an 89-66 loss at Notre Dame, Ohio. They avenged that defeat with an 84-66 victory Saturday against the visiting Falcons.

"We've been healthy all year. That's a key. I've never changed the lineup. These guys know each other and they find each other. They move as one on the floor."

Point Park is doing it with a starting unit of four guards and a 6-foot-2 center.

"We have a 'go-to' guy in [Chivas] Whipple and we get real good rebounding from our guards," Rager said. "Mark Ferguson might only be 6-2, but he's as wide as he is big."

Despite the lack of height, Point Park leads the country in rebound margin per game (plus-11.89). Whipple, a 6-1 junior, tops the Pioneers with an 8.2 average.

"Everyone on this team goes after it when the ball goes up," Rager said. "We attack the boards with all five guys."

In addition to being No. 1 in rebound margin, the Pioneers are No. 1 in scoring with 94.5 points per game.

Again, Whipple leads the way with a 20.4 average, followed by 6-0 senior Gavin Prosser (14.9 ppg), 5-11 senior Denny DiPasquale (14.0 ppg), 6-1 senior Ryne Liggins (12.2 ppg), 6-7 junior Brad Fusco (11.5 ppg, 7.2 rpg), Ferguson (7.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg) and 6-7 junior Dan Muto (7.5 ppg, 3.8 rpg).

Rager sticks with a seven-player rotation most of the time, going deeper on the bench only at the end of games when the outcome has long been decided. He gives his players the freedom to shoot whenever they think they have a high-percentage shot.

"I always tell them if they don't shoot it, they're coming out," he said. "They know what a good shot is."

Many of those shots come as a result of pinpoint passes from Prosser, who averages 6.8 assists to rank among the leaders in the country.

Rager was asked if he expected the Pioneers to have a record like this when the season started.

"Maybe not 27-1, but I saw this team coming," he said.

"We were pretty good last year (17-8), and I knew if we added some height we could be really good. We needed to get a big guy who could run the court because we knew that Prosser would get him the ball."

That player is Fusco, who transferred along with Muto from the North Side campus of Community College of Allegheny County.

"This team is pretty special," Rager said.

"I think we're just beginning to see how special this season is."

Since 1950, several teams from the district have done some special things.

California's Vulcans, led by Ray Gutierrez, went 31-2 in 1991-92 and reached the NCAA Division II Final Four.

IUP, also from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, was 29-2 in 1994-95 and reached the Final Four and 27-3 in 1993-94 and went as far as the Elite Eight. Both teams starred Derrick Freeman and were coached by Kurt Kanaskie.

Waynesburg's Rudy Marisa coached teams, featuring Darrin Walls, that were 27-2 in 1985-86 and 32-3 in 1987-88. The '87-88 team reached the NAIA Final Four.

The highest winning percentage by a district Division I team was produced by Duquesne, which was 26-3 in 1953-54. The Dukes, ranked fifth in the country, were the runners-up in the NIT when it was the premier tournament in college basketball.

All-Americans Sihugo Green and Dick Ricketts led the Dukes, who were coached by Dudey Moore.