In a game that Warhawk head coach Pat Miller said "looked like Eau Claire was playing its third game in a week and we were playing our third straight road game", UW-Whitewater held off UW-Eau Claire 69-63 at Zorn Arena in Eau Claire Saturday afternoon.
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UW-W, 12-2 overall and 5-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, won its fifth straight game and eighth in the last nine outings. UW-Eau Claire is 8-6 overall and 2-3 in league play.
Whitewater managed a 28-24 lead at halftime, despite missing all six of its three point attempts, by holding Eau Claire to 36% shooting from the floor.
UW-W led the entire second half, but the Blugolds were within one at 35-34 with 16:02 left, just two points back at 47-45 at 8:49 and again at 54-52 with 4:20 left. It was still that tight, 63-61 on a layup by Shea Ryan with 38 seconds left. Matt Goodwin (Milwaukee/Rufus King) made two free throws to put Whitewater back up by four, 65-61 five seconds later, but it took just seven seconds for Colin Boone to make a layup to pull EC back to within two, 665-63 with 26 seconds remaining. Goodwin came through again for the Warhawks, hitting two more free throws, this time with 21 seconds left to make it 67-63 Whitewater. Eau Claire missed a three, Whitewater's Kori Vernon (Madison/Memorial) got the rebound and with six second left, Goodwin made up layup to give him six straight points for Whitewater and make the final margin 69-63.
Whitewater's win was forged at the free throw line. After going 4-4 in the first half, UW-W made 23-28 in the second half (27-32 for the game, their best free throw percentage of the season). Eau Claire was 6-11 from the charity stripe.
Goodwin led UW-W with 23 points, his fourth straight game over twenty points and the fifth time in the last six games. Rob Perry (Milwaukee/Dominican), with 22, was right behind. Goodwin was 11-12 from the free throw line and Perry was 10-10. Goodwin's 11 is the most made by a Warhawk in a game this season, and Perry has hit ten free throws in a game twice. Perry's 10-10 night is only the twelfth time in school history that a player has attempted double figures in free throws and made all of them.
Eau Claire was led by Dan Beyer's game-high 26 points. Beyer added nine rebounds and two blocked shots. Shea added 11 points and a game-high five assists for UW-EC.
UW-Whitewater will host UW-Stout Saturday, January 19 at 5:00 in Kachel Gym of Williams Center.
