Box Score WHITEWATER, Wis. - The UW-Whitewater women's basketball team came back from a four-point half time deficit to hand UW-Oshkosh its first loss of the season 72-66. The Warhawks remain unbeaten at 3-0 in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play and are 10-3 overall this season. UW-Oshkosh is 13-1 and 3-1 in league play.

The lead changed ten times in the first half but the Titans held the advantage for the majority of the half. With the score tied 23-23 at 4:58, UW-O rattled off eight in a row to take a 31-23 lead at 3:07. The Titans were ahead by eight again at the 1:36 mark, 35-27, when the Warhawks made a late half move to come to within four, 31-35 at the break.

UW-W shot 38% from the floor in the first 20 minutes compared to 48% for the Titans including 5-8 from long range.

The Warhawks took over the lead with 15:53 showing on the scoreboard after an Abbie Reeves (Salem/Westosha Central) layup made it 42-41. UW-W wouldn't trail the rest of the way. Whitewater was ahead by as much as seven, twice, at the 4:20 mark (62-55) and again at 3:23 (64-57). UW-Oshkosh pulled to within two with less than three minutes remaining, 64-62 at 2:43 but the Warhawks used an Amy Mandrell (Forsyth, IL/Maroa-Forsyth) jumper followed by two Mary Merg (Greendale/Greendale) free throws to push the lead back to six, 68-62 with 57 seconds left. The Titans were forced to foul and UW-W made its final four charity tosses to seal the win.

Whitewater scored 29 points off of 23 Titan turnovers in the game. UW-W committed 11 turnovers but allowed UW-O to convert only eight points on the takeaways. The Warhawks shot 42% (26-62) from the field in the game and 79% (19-24) from the free throw line. UW-Oshkosh shot 40% (19-47) from the floor and 74% (20-27) from the free throw line. The Titans stayed in the game with the hot hands from downtown shooting 8-15 from three point range in the game.

Merg led all players with 20 points adding two assists and four steals. Kaitlyn Thill (Belgium/Ozaukee) added 19 points and posted a team high seven rebounds. Katie Burton (Crystal Lake, IL/Crystal Lake South) and Mandrell rounded out the double digit scorers for UW-W with 13 and 12 respectively.

The Warhawks will head to Eau Claire for another WIAC matchup Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00.



AK/pmp