Bloomington, Ill. - The No. 24 UW-Whitewater women's basketball team took down No. 13 Illinois Wesleyan 60-51 in the final game of the Champions Classic Sunday.
Illinois Wesleyan's Shirk Center is a notoriously tough place to play for most teams ... the Titans had a 19-game regular season home win streak going into the game Sunday. On top of snapping that streak, the Warhawks have now won their last six games against the Titans on their home court.
Sunday's matchup was a battle on both sides with an especially strong late game performance from the Warhawks to seal the deal. The teams were tied 13-13 after the first quarter. The second was a tale of two halves -- the first dominated by UWW the second by IWU. Over the first five minutes of the second quarter, the Warhawks built a nine-point lead as
Mia Gillis (Mundelein, Ill./Carmel Catholic) knocked down a jumper to make it 26-17. The last five minutes of the half, the Titans responded with a 16-2 run to take a five-point lead into the intermission, 28-33.
UW-Whitewater whittled away at the gap throughout the third eventually tying the game 43-43 on
Renee Rittmeyer's (Winnebago, Ill./Winnebago) jumper with less than ten seconds in the period.
The fourth was all Whitewater ... Gillis,
Bri McCurdy (St. Croix Falls, Wis./St. Croix Falls) and
Caden Krohn (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha West) combined for 17 points in the final ten minutes. Rittmeyer out-rebounded the entire Illinois Wesleyan team in the quarter 8-5. Meanwhile, the Warhawk defense held the Titans to a sub-20 shooting percentage from the floor including zero points in the paint and zero second chance points.
Gillis led all scorers with 22 points on 9-16 from the floor. Rittmeyer tallied a double-double with 12 points on 5-8 from the floor and 11 rebounds adding a pair of assists and four steals. McCurdy rounded out the double digit scorers with 10 while dishing out a game-high five assists and swiping three steals.
Following the final game of the Champions Classic, Gillis was selected as the tournament MVP while McCurdy was an All-Tournament Team pick.
The Warhawks are back in action against Carroll University on Wednesday. That game is set for a 5:30 tipoff in Kachel Gym.
