Box Score WHITEWATER, Wis. – The UW-Whitewater men's basketball team was able to fend off a second-half surge by UW-Stout to walk away with a 70-59 victory in Kachel Gymnasium. Whitewater is now 17-3 overall and 8-3 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and Stout is 11-9 and 6-5 in conference play.

Photo Gallery (couresty of Alex Saager)

KJ Evans (Beloit/Beloit Memorial) led UW-W with 19 points and seven rebounds while Quardell Young (Kenosha/Bradford) and Eric Bryson (Elkhorn/Elkhorn) added 11 points each. Young was a perfect 5-5 from the floor and 1-1 from the charity stripe. Whitewater shot 52.2% (24-46) for the game compared to Stout's 47.6% (20-42). UW-W could not find the range from behind the arc, missing all eight attempts while Stout was 6-12.

The Warhawks opened the game with an 8-1 run, capped by a layup by Young, that lasted over five minutes. UW-Stout missed all five shots from the field to open the game and turned the ball over twice.

The Blue Devils didn't take long to answer as it went on a 13-2 run to take a 14-11 lead at the 11:20 mark. Stout hit two three's and was 3-3 from the free throw line in the run that lasted 2:43.

After the teams traded baskets, Alex Merg (Greendale/Greendale) converted a three-point play to spark a 19-3 run by to continue the game of streaks. The run lasted over eight minutes and gave UW-W a 13 point lead with just under three minutes left to play in the opening 20 minutes. The Warhawks were able to extend their lead to 17, 41-24 to go into intermission.

Evans led all scorers and rebounders in the first half with 15 points and six rebounds. Evans shot 5-9 from the field and 5-7 at the free throw line. UW-W shot 51.7% (15-29) in the first half but went 0-7 from downtown. Stout shot 40.0% (8-20) from the field and 6-9 from the charity stripe.

UW-Whitewater was able to hold its double-digit lead over UW-Stout in the opening minutes of the second half. Stout pulled to within seven points on two separate occasions, the last coming at the 5:37 mark, but the Warhawks were able to fend off the surging Blue Devils and extend the lead back to double-digits and hold it for the remainder of the game.

UW-Whitewater capitalized on Stout's turnovers, scoring 21 points off the Blue Devils 21 miscues. Whitewater controlled the paint throughout the game, holding a 26-8 advantage in points in the paint in the first half and a 14-12 edge in the second half for a total of 40-20 throughout the game.

In the second half, Stout's Aaron Jenny led all scorers with 13 points and Young led Whitewater with nine points. Young went 4-4 in the second half and converted on his only trip to the free throw line.

Whitewater will host top-ranked UW-Stevens Point on Wednesday, February 5 in Kachel Gym with tip scheduled for 7:00 pm.


PMP/ak