They say that all good things must end some day (Chad and Jeremy, or Peter and Gordon?), and UW-W's streak of nine consecutive regular season wins over UW-Eau Claire came to an end Saturday night.  Despite turning the ball just eleven times, second best this season, and hitting 24-29 free throws, more than double UW-Eau Claire's totals for either made or attempted, UW-Whitewater couldn't overcome a season low 32% shooting from the floor in their first Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference loss of the season, 80-67 loss at Zorn Arena in Eau Claire.

box score

UW-Whitewater came in to the game leading the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in field goal accuracy, hitting .542 from the floor.  But the Warhawks missed their first nine shots from the floor before Alex Edmunds (Cedarburg/) finally broke through at 14:48.  Eau Claire wasn't faring much better with three turnovers and four fouls in the first five minutes as the Blugolds led 5-4.  UW-EC woke up to score the ten straight to take a 15-5.  Whitewater momentarily cut the lead to 17-10, but EC responded to build the lead back to 35-17 with 4:07 left.  The Warhawks cut that deficit in half by the intermission, UW-EC leading 41-32.  

Eau Claire held two eleven point leads early in the second half, but with the score 50-39 Dustin Mitchell (Lac Du Flambeau/Lakeland) scored five of the next nine points to bring UW-W to within 50-48 at 12:07.  Two minutes later EC began a 12-3 splurge that got their lead back to 65-53 with 6:28.  Still within eight, 69-61 with 3:06 left, UW-W was forced to play catchup and the Warhawks missed their last six three point attempts.  

Senior center Dustin Mitchell (Lac Du Flambeau/Lakeland) recorded his sixth double double of the season, leading both teams with 19 points and 10 rebounds.  Edmunds, a sophomore forward, added 14 points, hitting all six of his free throw attempts, and junior guard #D.J. Dantzler# added 11 points.  Phil Negri (Minocqua/Lakeland) had three assists and Dupree Fletcher (Milwaukee/Rufus King) had three steals.  Junior center Amadou Fofana led UW-EC with 17 points, hitting 8-10 shots, with senior forward Geoff Probst adding 13 and a team high nine boards.  Backcourt mates Nick Bartlett and Marcus Ruh added 12 points apiece, with the duo combining for ten assists.

Whitewater is 14-2 overall and 6-1 in the WIAC.  UW-EC is 10-5 and 3-4.

UW-W, ranked fourth in the D3hoops.com poll, will travel to Williams Fieldhouse in Platteville Wednesday, then on to UW-Stevens Point for a Saturday matchup.  The next home game will be January 30 at 6:00 with UW-Stout visiting Kachel Gym in Williams Center.

For additional information:  Pat Miller, UW-W coach