Feb. 4, 2015 By Andrew Lowe and Paul Bressler

Freshman forward Andrea Meinert scored the game-winning bucket as time expired and gave the UW-Whitewater women’s basketball team a 56-54 victory over the UW-La Crosse Eagles on Jan. 31.

The ’Hawks also lost to the UW-Platteville Pioneers 59-55 on Jan. 28.

With 23 seconds to play against La Crosse, and a tie ball game, the Warhawks held for the final shot.

Freshman guard Brooke Trewyn drove the center of the lane and had her floater attempt hit back rim.

Meinert wrestled away the offensive board and got a shot up through traffic with about .5 seconds on the clock.

Each team battled its own poor shooting.

The ’Hawks shot a dismal 29 percent (9-31) while the Eagles were slightly better at 39 percent (9-23) from the field.

Despite the lack of efficiency, the ’Hawks trailed by just one, 28-27, heading into the break.

The Eagles opened the second half firing and took an eight-point lead 41-33. The ’Hawks responded by slowly chipping away at its deficit and tied the game up at 51 following a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Reilly Stewart with four minutes left in the game.

Multiple free throws by both teams would eventually tie the game up and set the stage for Meinert.

Freshman center Kate McKay tailed 11 points and nine rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench. Meinert finished with 10 points and seven boards. Whitewater’s bench outscored the Eagles 28-6.

Junior forward Maddie Bare came up huge down the stretch, but the ’Hawks fell just short as it suffered a loss to UW-Platteville.

“It was not our best effort tonight,” head coach Keri Carollo said. “We made a lot of silly decisions on defense in the second half.”

Bare had a team-high 11 points and was the ’Hawks hottest shooter going 4-for-4 from the floor on the night. The ’Hawks shot a rough 29.5 percent, slightly lower than the Pioneers 32.2 percent.

The ’Hawks opened up the game on a 5-0 run with a layup by Smith and a three by junior guard Abbie Reeves. The ’Hawks and Pioneers traded points for most of the first half, until the ’Hawks hit a five minute scoring drought.

The Pioneers led by two at the half.

The ’Hawks shut down the WIAC’s leading scorer, Platteville’s Alyssa Krajco, who is averaging 18 points a game, in the first half, holding her to only four points.

The defense didn’t let Krajco score for the first 14 minutes of the game.

The Pioneers proved to be too strong down the stretch as Krajco took over. Krajco went off for 14 points in the second half, willing the Pioneers to the win.

“She is their go-to player,” Bare said. “It was a close game and she took over. That is how they are successful.”