Whitewater, Wis. -- The No. 24 UW-Whitewater women's basketball team opened the 2025-26 campaign with a huge 63-58 win over No. 19 Washington University in St. Louis Saturday afternoon in Kachel Gym. 

A big first quarter gave the Warhawks an early cushion that came in handy late. UWW shot nearly 45% in the first ten minutes to open up a 19-14 lead by the end of the quarter. A 5-0 run bolstered by a pair of jumpers from Mia Gillis (Mundelein, Ill./Carmel Catholic) and Caden Krohn (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha West) in the middle of the period gave UWW the five-point lead they held to the break. 

UW-Whitewater extended the gap into double figures by the midway point of the second quarter. A Camryn Nies (Platteville, Wis./Platteville) five-point run courtesy of a three-pointer pushed the margin to 12, 29-17, with 4:28 left before halftime. The Bears closed the half on a 6-0 run to send the teams into locker rooms with UWW leading 29-24. 

On the other side of the break, the Warhawks scored the first eight points of the third quarter to take their largest lead of the contest, 37-24. Once again WashU turned on the offense late in the period tallying seven of the last nine points of the period to make it 44-37 heading into the fourth. 

The Bears whittled away at the margin pulling to within two multiple times, the latest with just 32 seconds left in the game. From that point, UW-Whitewater sealed the game from the free throw line. Gillis hit a pair with 24 seconds to go. Bri McCurdy (St. Croix Falls, Wis./St. Croix Falls) drained a pair with 14 to go and then sealed the game with two more with three seconds left. 

Gillis paced the Warhawk offense with 18 on 8-15 from the floor adding five boards. McCurdy ended with 13 bolstered by an 8-10 performance from the free throw line. She added a game-high three steals. Nies rounded out the double digit scorers with 11 including three triples in the contest. Renee Rittmeyer (Winnebago, Ill./Winnebago) was the most active on the glass with seven rebounds. 

UW-Whitewater will head to Bloomington, Illinois to compete in a tournament hosted by Illinois Wesleyan next weekend. Millikin is on the docket for Saturday at noon followed by a top 25 battle with the Titans Sunday at 2 PM.