WHITEWATER – The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women's basketball team erased a 10-point second-half deficit Saturday, but had two game-tying 3-pointers in the closing seconds fall short in a 68-65 setback against UW-Superior in a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest at Kachel Gymnasium.
 
Trailing 54-44 with 8:55 left in the affair, the Warhawks (8-10 overall, 3-6 WIAC) stormed back with a 13-1 run as sophomore guard Andrea Olson gave the team a 57-55 lead, its first since the 1:19 mark of the first half, with a 3-pointer.
 
UW-Whitewater led 59-56 after a pair of free throws by freshman forward Andrea Meinert (West Bend/Kettle Moraine Lutheran) with 4:27 remaining. From there, the Yellowjackets (13-5, 7-2) posted a 7-0 run to retake control of the game, and led 67-61 with 1:52 left.
 
The Warhawks didn't go away as junior guard Abbie Reeves (Salem/Westosha Central) and freshman guard Malia Smith (Bolingbrook, Ill./Neuqua Valley) each hit a pair of free throws to make it 67-65 with 42 seconds to play.
 
UW-Superior ran offense and hit 1-of-2 at the free throw line, giving UW-Whitewater the ball back down by three with 11 seconds on the clock.
 
The Warhawks had two looks at 3-pointers in the waning moments, but one grazed the front of the rim and the other came up short as time expired.
 
Reeves and Smith led UW-Whitewater with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Smith added team highs of seven rebounds, four assists and two steals, and was 8-of-8 at the free throw line.
 
Meinert added nine points and five rebounds off the bench.
 
The Warhawks converted 21-of-24 (87.5 percent) at the free throw line compared to 14-of-24 for the Yellowjackets. UW-Superior outrebounded UW-Whitewater 47-31.
 
The Warhawks forced 19 turnovers and held advantages in points off turnovers (24-14) and bench points (35-9). The Yellowjackets shot 46.3 percent from the floor and held UW-Whitewater to 31.1 percent, a season low.
 
In the first half, UW-Superior sprinted out to a 16-6 lead through the first 6:24 of the game. UW-Whitewater later turned a 21-14 deficit into a 22-21 lead following a 3-pointer by Reeves with 8:04 left in the period.
 
The Warhawks led by as many as five in the first, but the Yellowjackets tallied the final six points of the half to head into the locker room with a  36-33 advantage.
 
UW-Superior, which shot 50 percent in the first half, expanded its lead early in the second before Reeves brought UW-Whitewater to within four at the 12:14 mark following her third 3-pointer of the game.
 
The Yellowjackets pushed their lead back to 10 before the Warhawks started their comeback.
 
UW-Whitewater resumes play Wednesday against UW-Platteville. Tip-off at Kachel Gymnasium is slated for 7 p.m.