A lopsided win in the game to clinch the conference championship. The number one seed in the conference tournament. Five seniors honored. At home. It doesn't get much better than this. UW-Whitewater rolled over UW-Superior 92-61 Saturday afternoon at Kachel Gym in Williams Center to up the Warhawks' record to 19-6 overall and 12-4 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The piece of the championship UW-W was hoping to maintain coming in to the game, and even halfway through the game, became the whole cake when UW-La Crosse defeated UW-Stevens Point to give the Warhawks sole possession of the WIAC trophy.
box score
photo gallery courtesy of Joy Kowald
Whitewater's seniors closed their WIAC career in style. UW-W coach Keri Carollo started all five seniors, Kelly Beese (Wausau/West), Kelsey Hendrickson (Monroe/Monroe), Sarah Moran (Waukesha/South), Heidi Sonntag (Milwaukee/Wisconsin Lutheran), and Nicole Bundy (Fredonia/Ozaukee), essentially a four guard offense with Beese the lone exception. Bundy took game scoring honors with 22 points. Sonntag became the second Warhawk to reach the 1,000 point mark (Hendrickson reached it last week), reaching that number exactly with 18 points, hitting 6-7 shots from the field and 5-6 from the line. Hendrickson rose to the occasion with 17 points, including 5-5 from the line, and a game high four assists. Moran contributed four points, three rebounds and two assists; and Beese added three points and three rebounds in ten minutes. The seniors accounted for 70% of Whitewater's scoring.
The 92 points is the most UW-W has scored this season. The previous high came in the season opener November 17, an 89-75 win at Loras College in Dubuque. Whitewater's previous high in a WIAC game was 88 in a win at UW-Platteville February 10.
UW-S was still in the same area code halfway through the first half, trailing just 22-14 at 11:31. But by halftime that margin had grown to 54-29, with 44 of those points accounted for by Bundy (20), Sonntag (14), and Hendrickson (10). Whitewater's lead was never less than 25 points in the second half, and the margin reached 35, 86-51, with 4:25 to go.
Both coaches emptied, then re-filled, then emptied again, their benches. Whitewater used 17 players in the game, fourteen of whom broke in to the scoring column. Superior also used 17 players.
UW-W shot 60% from the floor, cooling down from a 71% first half. The Warhawks also forced 34 Superior turnovers.
UW-W also clinched the WIAC title at home on the last day of the 2007-2008 season, with that team advancing to the Final Four.
As the number one seed in the WIAC Tournament UW-W earned a first round bye. The Warhawks will play Thursday, February 25 at 6:00 in Kachel Gym in Williams Center against the lowest remaining seed from Tuesday's first round matchups of #3 vs. #6 and #4 vs. #5. The WIAC Tournament championship game will be hosted by the highest remaining seed Saturday, February 27 at a time to be determined.
For additional information: Keri Carollo, UW-W coach
