To quote the late, great Jackie Gleason ... "how sweet it is".  UW-Whitewater won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship with a 70-63 win over UW-Superior at Kachel Gym in Williams Center Saturday afternoon.  The Warhawks, ranked ninth in the D3hoops.com poll, have at least a share of league title, with UW-Stevens Point playing UW-La Crosse in a later game.  A win by the Pointers will make them co-champions with Whitewater.  Either way, sole or shared champions, UW-W has earned the number one seed in the league tournament using tie breaking procedures.

box score
photo gallery

Whitewater out-scored Superior 7-0 in the first four minutes of the game and pushed the margin to 18-6 with 13:12 left in the half, but the Yellowjackets came back with a 10-2 run to cut it to 20-16.  The momentum swung back to favor Whitewater, with UW-W building a lead as large as 17 before leaving the court with a 41-26 lead at the half.

With the Warhawks in front 62-51 with 3:32 left, UW-S put together a 7-0 spurt to cut it to 62-58 with 0:46 left in the game.  All eight of Whitewater's final points, 8-8, came from the free throw line.

UW-W shot 49% from the floor, UW-S 37%.  

Senior center Dustin Mitchell (Lac Du Flambeau/Lakeland) and senior guard Dupree Fletcher (Milwaukee/Rufus King) shared scoring honors for the Warhawks with 18 apiece.  Freshman guard Nolan Free (Sheboygan/North) scored 10.  Phil Negri (Minocqua/Lakeland) passed for four assists, and Fletcher had three steals.

The Yellowjackets were led by junior forward Jake Smith's game high 23 points.  Junior forward Marcus Helland contributed 15, and junior guard Dan Culy and senior guard Dwight Hill had 11 each.  Helland took game honors with nine rebounds and tied Negri with four assists.  

UW-Whitewater is 21-4, 13-3 in the WIAC and UW-Superior ends the regular season 14-12, 7-9 in league play.

UW-W, as the number one seed, has a bye in the WIAC first round games Tuesday.  The Warhawks will host the lowest seed remaining after the #3 versus #6 and #4 versus #5 first round games, with that tourney semifinal beginning at 8:00 Thursday at Kachel Gym in Williams Center.  That men's game will be the second half of a doubleheader, with the Warhawk women, also league champions and the number one seed, hosting another semifinal at 6:00 Thursday.


For additional information:  Pat Miller, UW-W coach