Feb. 8, 2014

By Daniel Schoettler

The Warhawks women’s basketball team continued their undefeated run in the WIAC with an 86-73 win over UW-Superior Saturday afternoon in Kachel Gymnasium. 

The game was the team’s annual Play4Kay game, which included raffling away an autographed Antonio Freeman jersey at halftime. 

The first half went back and forth between both the Warhawks and the Yellowjackets with eight ties and four lead changes.  The biggest lead in the first half was a six-point lead by the ’Hawks after a Mary Merg free throw made it 31-25 with 6:39 remaining. 

The Yellowjackets scored the next 10 points to take a four point lead with 5:13 left in the half.  The Warhawks then ended the half on a 9-3 run taking a 40-38 lead into the locker room. 

The Warhawks did not give up the lead the rest of the game. Sophomore guard Abbie Reeves hit a three-pointer to extend the lead to five right after the break.

 UW-Superior fought back to cut the lead to one, but after that they did not come close to grabbing the lead.  

The ’Hawks eventually made it a double-digit lead after a Kaitlyn Thill layup at the 7:03 mark made it 71-61.  After Thill hit two free throws with a minute remaining, the team extended the lead to 14 at 82-68.

 “I give a lot of credit to Superior,” head coach Keri Carollo said.  “They came ready to play.  Thankfully we got off to a good start offensively because we could not get a stop defensively.  Putting up 86 I guess is what it takes to beat Superior because they are hard to stop or slow down.  They just kept scoring in bunches.”

The Warhawks shot 43.8 percent from the field while shooting 38.9 percent from the three-point line.  The ’Hawks shot 62.2 percent from the free throw line in the victory.

UW-Superior shot 44.1 percent from the field while shooting 37.5 percent from three-point range.   The Yellowjackets finished shooting 70 percent from the free throw line.

Senior forward Amy Mandrell led the team in scoring with 25 points and also had nine rebounds.  Three more Warhawks finished in double figures.

Thill added 17 points with nine rebounds and five assists.  Senior guard Katie Burton contributed 13 points with nine of them coming from the three-point arc. Reeves rounded out the double digit scorers with 12.

“That’s huge not only just from the perimeter but in the post,” Carollo said.  “We talk about it all the time that we want a balanced attack, so it’s nice to see that we can not only score a lot but get it from a lot of different areas.”

With the win, the team improves to 19-3 overall and remains undefeated in WIAC play at 13-0. The Warhawks’ next game is at UW-La Crosse at 7 p.m. on Wednesday followed by a trip to UW-Oshkosh on Feb. 15.

The team’s final home game, which is also designated as Senior Day, is at 3 p.m. on Feb. 22 against UW-Eau Claire.