UW-Whitewater may have been caught looking over its shoulder Saturday afternoon, edging UW-River Falls 72-68 at the Karges Center in the final regular season game for both teams. UW-W, 13-3 in the WIAC and 21-4 overall, could have been distracted by the UW-Platteville game at UW-Stevens Point, where a Pointer win will give UW-W the number two seed in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, and a Pioneer win would push the Warhawks down to number three and force UW-W to host a first round game against UW-River Falls Tuesday night in Williams Center. UPDATE 6:25 p.m. Saturday, February 21 ... With Platteville's 55-52 win over Stevens Point February 21 UW-Whitewater will host UW-River Falls Tuesday at 7:00 in Kachel Gym of Williams Center in a WIAC Tournament quarterfinal. UW-W will be the number three seed, UW-RF is number six. If the Warhawk men win Tuesday they will play at UW-Platteville Thursday at 7:00.
box score
The Warhawks started the game on a 10-0 scoring run, but River Falls rallied back to tie the game at 32-32 with 1:06 left in the half on three by Danny Johnson. Matt Goodwin (Milwaukee/King) finished off the first half with a dunk to make the score 34-32 Whitewater going in to the locker-room.
Neither team could take control of the game in the second half, with twelve lead changes in the final twenty minutes. In the last six minutes of the game the lead only exceeded two points in the last 0:21 twice, once on two free throws by Myles McKay (Menomonee Falls/Menomonee Falls) with 0:21 left for a 71-68 lead, and then with 1.6 seconds left on a Kori Vernon (Madison/Memorial) free throw for the final margin, 72-68. In between the two charity tosses UW-RF has a chance to tie, but a three-pointer by Jake Voeltz rimmed out and Vernon got the rebound and subsequent foul shot.
UW-W shot 50% from the floor while limiting UW-RF to 39%. The Warhawks also had a six point margin in free throws, hitting 19-28 and the Falcons were 13-16.
McKay led both teams with 29 points, hitting 11-12 free throws. Twenty-two of his points came in the second half. Chris Vines (Milwaukee/Washington) came off the bench, as Billy Kolinske (Waukesha/Catholic Memorial) battled foul trouble, to score 11. Jontae Koonkaew led UW-RF with 19 points, backed up by 11 from Voelz. Koontaew also shared game high assist honors with four.
UW-River Falls finished the regular season 11-14 overall and 5-11 in the WIAC. UW-W swept the season series with the Falcons, also winning 90-68 January 3 in Whitewater.
The WIAC Tournament will begin Tuesday, with the third seed hosting number six, and number four hosting number five. The top two seeds earn first round byes, and those top teams will host Tuesday's winners in the semifinals Thursday. The WIAC Tournament championship will be hosted by the highest remaining seed Saturday, February 28.
For additional information: Pat Miller, UW-W coach
