Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 The UW-Whitewater women's basketball team finished the best season in program history, hoisting the national runner-up trophy after a 69-51 loss to unbeaten and number one ranked DePauw University in the NCAA III championship game played in DeVos Fieldhouse on the campus of Hope College in Holland, Michigan. Head coach Keri Carollo summed up her reaction to the game by noting how proud she is of the team. "I'm extremely proud of our program and these young women that came together and really put together just a magical run to get to this point. To be able to play for a national championship is everything that a coach could ever dream of and to do it with 24 of the finest young women that decided to be part of the ride, I'm really proud of this group."

**We are in the process of creating a Final Four Photo Library with pictures from the duration of the trip. A complete gallery will be posted by Monday afternoon. 

Press Conference Video 
UW-Whitewater Tournament Website
Podcast from WFAW of the DePauw game
 
DePauw University capped a perfect season, 34-0, with the national championship.   Whitewater ended the season 26-7, the second highest victory total in school history, trailing only the 2008 team that finished third and went 29-4.
 
The Tigers came out on fire.  DU took a 9-2 lead after making their first four field goals.  Leading 14-5, the Tigers were 6-9 from the field and 2-2 from three point range.  Whitewater was 2-7 without a three. 
 
DePauw then extended the lead to 23-4, holding UW-W without a point from17:11 to 8:51.  Whitewater responded with a 9-0 run to close within 25-14, but the Tigers quickly turned the tide back in their favor with their own run to take a 32-14 lead. The deficit at halftime was 17, 35-18, the largest at the break since UW-W played Hope early in  mid-December and the Warhawks trailed 35-9 at intermission.
 
DePauw shot 63% from the field in the half making 15-24 field goals. UW-W's was 8-20, 40%.
 
Senior center Cortney Kumerow (Bartlett, IL/South Elgin) opened the second half with an old fashioned three-point play.  Junior guard Kaitlyn Thill (Belgium/Ozaukee) drew an offensive foul call and it looked like a completely different Warhawk team had taken the court after halftime.
 
Whitewater forced an early Tiger timeout after scoring the first six points of the half to pull within eleven, 35-24 with 16:50 remaining. UW-W held the Tigers scoreless for the first 4:11 in the second half before DePauw senior forward Ellie Pearson broke the drought.
 
The Tigers pushed the lead back up to double digits, and with the second media timeout stopping play, the scoreboard showed DePauw with the lead 47-29 and 11:33 on the clock and reached twenty at 11:06, 49-29. 
 
The Tigers unblemished record, 34-0, broke the NCAA Division III record for wins in a season.
 
UW-Whitewater's second place finish tops any previous women's basketball team since it became an intercollegiate sport at the school in 1966.  The school's previous high water mark came in 1982, when UW-W finished third in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Division III championship, and when Keri Carollo directed the Warhawks to a third place finish in the 2008 NCAA III championship tournament. 
 
UW-Whitewater and DePauw had met just one other time in program history. The Warhawks topped the Tigers 83-80 in an NCAA championship quarterfinal game in 2008, after which UW-W advanced to the final four, which was also hosted by Hope College in Holland.
 
Whitewater's run through the NCAA III championship tournament began with a first round 68-48 win over Wisconsin Lutheran College, followed the next night by a 71-51 win over Carthage College.  UW-W, ranked twenty-second in the final D3hoops.com poll, defeated number ten Simpson College 76-63 in a sectional semifinal, and punched their ticket to the final four with a 65-60 win over second ranked Hope College in a quarterfinal.  UW-W advanced to Saturday's title game with a 64-62 overtime win over Amherst College, ranked sixth by D3hoops.com, Friday night. 


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March 15 --  NCAA III Semifinal Recap
A classic.  There may never have been a clutch performance like this in UW-Whitewater women's basketball history -- and if anyone can remember one it certainly did not come on a stage this big.  Not just once, but twice, UW-W junior guard Mary Merg (Greendale/Greendale) hit shots as the buzzer sounded in Whitewater's 64-62 overtime win over Amherst College in a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III semifinal game in Holland, Michigan. The Warhawks will face DePauw University (33-0), a 66-59 winner over Williams College in the other semifinal Friday, in the NCAA III championship game Saturday at 7:00 (Eastern) in Holland.

How special was it?
Merg's game tying three in regulation and game winning basket in overtime were number one on ESPN's SportsCenter Friday night (actually, with all the college basketball tournaments, SportsCenter did not begin until 12:30 a.m., and Merg's highlights came on about 1:30 a.m. Central).  Merg's magic, voiced over by SportsCenter anchor Neil Everett, topped dunks from a variety of college and NBA stars and a Pavel Datsuk overtime goal for the Red Wings.  That's special. VIDEO

Mary Merg (Greendale/Greendale)'s shot is on the ESPN poll for Best of the Best! If she stays ahead this play will continue to be shown on ESPN.  Here is the link:http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/polls

Podcast from WFAW of the Amherst game.


Photo Gallery (courtesy of Crystal Meyer)

“I have to give all of the credit in the world to these guys never giving up, always believing in themselves, taking big shots when it was needed, getting big rebounds when it was needed,” said Warhawks' head coach Keri Carollo.

The Warhawks trailed by twelve, with 3:04 left in regulation. Then, in eerily similar fashion to the Warhawk men's basketball comeback in the NCAA III championship game versus Cabrini College in Salem, Virginia last year, a turn of events favored Whitewater -- led by one Warhawk in particular, junior guard Mary Merg (Greendale/Greendale).

UW-W had been 0-6 from three point range in the game until the clocked showed 2:49 left in the contest. Junior guard Megan Theune (Whitewater/Whitewater) gave the Warhawks a spark with their first triple of the game to reduce Amherst's lead to 52-43. With 2:17 left, an off balance shot by Merg hit the bottom of the net to bring UW-W to within six, 52-46. Merg made it back-to-back threes with another three-pointer and the Warhawks were within three, 52-49 with 0:54 on the clock. Amherst center Megan Robertson temporarily halted the Whitewater push with a jumper to extend the Jeff's lead to 54-49 with 21 seconds left.  Warhawk senior center Cortney Kumerow (Bartlett, IL/South Elgin) answered with a jumper with ten seconds left on the clock to cut Amherst's lead back to three, 54-51. A missed free throw from Amherst landed in the hands of UW-W freshman forward Lisa Palmer (Bartlett, IL/Bartlett) and the Warhawks had six seconds. Merg came through again, her three at the buzzer hitting nothing but net to send the game into overtime with the score tied 54-54.

UW-W struck first in overtime and were able to grab a five point lead, 62-57 with 29 seconds left. A Warhawk foul on an Amherst three point attempt led to three Jeff free throws by freshman forward Cheyenne Pritchard, who looked like Amherst's heroine when she followed with a jumper to knot the game, 62-62, with six seconds left. The inbound pass went to, who else, Merg, who pushed the ball up the sidelines and to the middle of the court for a 2-on-1. With time ticking away, Merg pulled up for a floater about ten feet out in the lane and for the second (or third, fourth ... depending on how you count the threes in regulation) time in the game, provided the clutch basket as the buzzer sounded, giving UW-W the 64-62 win.

Amherst head coach G.P. Gromacki commented on the Warhawk run.

 “I can't describe those shots, I don't think anyone can. It was like a guardian angel steering those shots in.”

It was the fourth overtime game in the history of NCAA III women's basketball semifinals. The most recent overtime game in the semifinals was in 2010 when Washington University-St. Louis defeated Amherst 86-75.
UW-Whitewater, now 26-6, gave Amherst just their second loss of the season to go along with 30 wins.

Merg summed up her contribution and the Warhawks' victory with, “Words can't even describe the feeling.”

Two Warhawks notched double-doubles in the game. Kumerow posted 19 points and 10 boards and frontcourt teammate Lisa Palmer (Bartlett, IL/Bartlett) had 10 points with 10 rebounds. Merg ended with 18 points, 14 coming in the second half and overtime.

Senior guard Marcia Voigt led the Jeffs with 16 points. Robertson recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Jasmine Hardy posted 15 points and Pritchard added 12.   Senior forward Bridget Crowley had a game high 16 rebounds for Amherst.

UW-Whitewater women's basketball is making its first appearance in a national championship game. Whitewater finished third in the AIAW III championship in 1982 and third in 2008 in the NCAA III final four in Holland, Michigan.


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March 9
Hope College will be going home for the final four, but not how they would have wished, after losing to UW-Whitewater 65-60 at Kachel Gym in Williams Center in Whitewater Saturday night.  UW-W, 25-6, advances to the final four, which will be hosted by Hope College in Holland, Michigan, Friday-Saturday, March 15-16.  UW-W will face Amherst College, 31-1. 

"We're excited; they delivered," said Warhawks' coach Keri Carollo. "They were maybe outmatched in a couple of positions, but they believed in each other."

Photo Gallery (courtesy of Crystal Meyer, available for purchase)

A slow start for the two teams, two UW-W turnovers and three missed jumpers by Hope, opened tonight's elite eight matchup. At 18:36, a three pointer by junior guard Mary Merg (Greendale/Greendale) ignited a 9-0 Whitewater run that ballooned into a thirteen point lead over the next four minutes, making the score 17-4. UW-W's largest lead of the first half came at 8:47 after a three point basket by junior guard Kaitlyn Thill (Belgium/Ozaukee), making the Hope deficit eighteen points, 30-12. Thill delivered the "Let's have fun" message to her team before the game, and it showed in the first half. Hope clawed back into the game over the next five minutes and cut the lead to eight, 34-26, after a layup by senior guard Liz Ellis at 3:18. The Warhawks went into the lockerroom with a thirteen point advantage, 39-26.

Whitewater shot 15-30 from the floor, including 4-5 from the three point line, and 5-5 from the free throw stripe, while Hope shot 9-28, 0-6 from three, and 8-13 from the free throw line.  Whitewater had the advantage in the rebounding department 22-14.

Thill led the Warhawks in the first half with eight points and five assists. Rebekah Llorens led the Flying Dutch with seven points.

The Warhawks' lead hovered in double digits for the first 15:30 of the second half until the Flying Dutch finally broke through with a 7-0 run with 4:16 left to play, making the score 58-56. A Merg three pointer at 2:21 swung the momentum back to the Warhawks with a five point advantage, 61-56. An Ellis layup with two seconds left cut the lead to three, 63-60, but Merg sank two free throws with one second left to send the Warhawks to the final four for the first time since 2008.
 
Whitewater's advantage came from the three point line, making 6-12, compared to Hope's 2-14. The Warhawks also controlled the boards 49-34.

Hope was led by senior guard Courtney Kust and Llorens, who both scored 11 points for the Flying Dutch. Whitewater had two players score 14 points, senior center Cortney Kumerow (Bartlett, IL/South Elgin) and Merg. Kumerow also pulled down ten rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season. Thill took game honors in assists with seven.

Hope ends the regular season 29-2. This will be the fourth time Hope has hosted the final four.  Last year they didn't make the tournament, but in 2008 and 2009 they also lost in the sectional finals, and the team they lost to went on to won the Division III national championship both times. In 2008 it was Howard Payne and in 2009 George Fox

"This team showed resiliency, got right there to the door step," said Hope head coach Brian Morehouse. "Of course we're disappointed, but the disappointing thing is not that we won't play next weekend, but that I don't have seven more days with these women."

"I don't want to take anything away from any of the other teams I've been a part of, but this group has a little angel on our shoulder," Carollo added.


If you are not able to attend the games in Holland, D3hoops.com's Hoopsville will be having a live broadcast Thursday, of the banquet, and Sunday night.  Both broadcasts will start at 7:00pm.  You can find more information and the videos at http://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/index.