The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference race tightened up another notch with UW-Whitewater's 61-59 over UW-Stevens Point Saturday evening at Kachel Gym in Williams Center. UW-W came in to the game ranked eleventh and twelfth in the two national Division III polls, the Pointers are ranked fifth and seventh.

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UW-Whitewater, now 20-3 overall and 11-3 in the WIAC trails UW-Stevens Point, 20-3 and 12-2 by one game with two WIAC regular season games left.  UW-Eau Claire is also in the mix, sitting at 10-4 in league play at 19-4 overall.  The top two teams in the regular season earn a bye in the first round of the WIAC Tournament, and the highest seed will host Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday games in the tourney.

Point got out of the gate quick, building a 21-10 lead at the 7:49 mark in the first half.   UW-W clawed back to a tie, 23-23, on a layup by Chantel Burg (Hartford/Hartford Union) with 4:02 in the first half.  Whitewater did not trail the rest of the game, but never built a lead of more than eight points.

Two free throws by Heidi Sonntag (Milwaukee/Wisconsin Lutheran) put UW-W up 60-53 with 3:31 left, but the Pointers scored six unanswered points to close within 60--59 at the 1:15 mark.  Meghan Schmidt (Port Washington/Port Washington)'s free throw with ten seconds left made it 61-59.  UW-SP got off a jumper, and a shot off the offensive rebound, but they fell off the rim as the clock ran out.

The team stats were as close as the final score.  The only difference was a slight edge in free throw points, with the Warhawks going 10-13 and the Pointers 8-8 -- the two point margin in the game.

Kelsey Hendrickson (Monroe/Monroe) scored 13 points for UW-W, and added a game-high five assists.  Tiffany Morton (Beloit/Memorial) and Sonntag had ten points each.  Morton had a game-high nine rebounds. 

UW-SP's Britta Peterson took game scoring honors with 14 points, and led her team with seven rebounds.  Jessi Sporle and Andrea Flease scored ten points each, and Sporle tied Peterson with seven boards.  Janelle Van Gomple tied Hendrickson for game honors with five assists.

UW-Whitewater will host UW-Oshkosh Wednesday, February 18 at 7:00 in Kachel Gym of Williams Center in the final regular season home game. 

For additional information:  Keri Carollo, UW-W coach