UW-Whitewater, in the "others receiving votes" category of the USA Today/ESPN Division III poll, upset Illinois Wesleyan University, tied for sixth in the poll, 74-60 Tuesday night in the Shirk Center in Bloomington, Illinois.
box score
Freshman guard Kaitlyn Thill (Belgium/Ozaukee) set the tone for the game with a steal at 19:11 and layup at 19:09 for the first basket of the game and UW-W was off and running. The Warhawks built a 16-5 lead at 13:58 on a Chantel Burg (Hartford/Hartford Union) jumper, but the Titans came back to close to within 18-14 at 10:56. Burg ended a 9-0 run for the Warhawks with a layup at 7:42 to put UW-W's lead up to 25-14. Whitewater increased the margin to sixteen points three times late in the half before heading in to the locker room up 38-24.
Whitewater shot 57% from the floor, and limited IWU to 33%, in building the lead. The Warhawks also had a 24-11 rebound bulge.
UW-W couldn't get out of the locker room fast enough, outscoring the Titans 13-4, building the lead to 51-28 with 14:41 left in the game. Emily Bestor (North Fond du Lac/Horace Mann)'s three at 9:39 made it 58-31, the largest lead of the game. A 72-60 lead with 1:17 left was as close as IWU would get the rest of the way.
A coaching cliche' is "everyone contributed", and on this night that was actually the case. UW-W coach Keri Carollo used twelve players, eight of them scored. Bestor, Katie Burton (Crystal Lake, IL/Crystal Lake South), and Jamie Swanson (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community) scored eleven points each. Dana Thompson (Belleville/Belleville) led both teams with six rebounds, and Thill topped the Warhawks with five steals. IWU's Nikki Preson was the game's leading scorer with 13 points, but she was held to 4-12 shotting from the floor, and just 3-10 from beyond the arc. Hope Schulte of the Titans led both teams with five assists and six steals, but she also struggled from the floor, going 2-14.
Whitewater wound up out-rebounding Illinois Wesleyan 48-29, and although the Warhawks' shooting cooled somewhat to 47% for the game, UW-W's defense kept the Titans at 36% for the game.
UW-W is 2-1. IWU, one of the final eight in the NCAA III tournament last year, is 1-2.
The Warhawks' next game will be at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa November 27. The first home appearance of the 2010-2011 season will be Wednesday, December 8 at 7:00 versus UW-Stevens Point.
For additional information: Keri Carollo, UW-W coach
