Jan. 15

By Daniel Schoettler

The UW-Whitewater men’s basketball team handed the UW-Platteville Pioneers’ first conference loss of the season Wednesday night with a 77-58 win. 

The win is also the seventh consecutive win for the Warhawks and also their fourth straight win in WIAC play since starting 0-2 in early December, which the team called a wake-up call early in the season.

“The nice thing with this team is that they’ve gotten progressively better,” head coach Pat Miller said.  “From a mental perspective and when you have as many veterans as we do and you start the conference season 0-2, it is certainly a wake-up call that you need to pick it up and they have.”

Both teams battled it out having five ties within the first eight minutes of the game against the Pioneers.  With six minutes left in the first half, junior Quardell Young converted a three-point play and added another layup to give the ’Hawks a lead at 17-12. 

After the Pioneers scored four straight points, senior guard Alex Merg hit a three-pointer to put the ’Hawks  up four at 20-16.  The team then scored 11 of the last 13 points to extend to lead to 31-18 at halftime.

“It felt good, knowing that they were undefeated in the conference,” Junior Quardell Young said.   “We knew it was going to be a big game from the start.  Our plan was to extend their offense past the three point line which they were uncomfortable with and take advantage of their transition opportunities.”

In the second half, the ’Hawks extended their lead to 24 three separate times.

The team shot 61.2 percent for the game, while shooting 30 percent from the three-point line. Miller’s squad also shot 14-for-21 from the free-throw line. 

UW-Platteville shot 44 percent for the game while only making two of their shots from the three-point line.  The Pioneers shot 75 percent from the line making 12 of their 16 attempts.

The Warhawks had three in double figures for the game.  They were led by senior forward Reggie Hearn with 16 points as well as junior point guard Quardell Young contributing 14 points.

The Pioneers also had three players in double figures.  Preseason All-American Chas Cross had 19 points, after only scoring four points in the first half of play.  Junior Jake Manning and Senior Eric Gerber both had 11 points apiece.

“I thought we did a great job on [Cross],” Miller said.  “We limited his touches.  He has been shooting the ball well from three, and he didn’t get any looks from three.   Most of what he did was when the game was pretty much over, so I was pleased.” 

The Warhawks improve to 13-2 overall, and improve to 4-2 in conference play. The next game for the Warhawks is Saturday at 3 p.m. against UW-Superior at home in Kachel Gym.