Feb. 18, 2015 By Emily Leclair
The UW-Whitewater men’s basketball team ended its 13-game winning streak with a loss to UW-Stevens Point on the road on Feb. 13, but bounced back with a home win over UW-River Falls 85-66, on Feb. 14. The ’Hawks are tied with the Pointers for first place in WIAC standings with just two games left in the regular season.
“I thought we did a good job of fighting and staying in the game, having two shot attempts to tie it and send it to overtime, but we just didn’t defend well enough to win,” head coach Pat Miller said.
UW-W took the lead over UW-SP in the first half, but Young picked up his second foul and was sent to the bench with 10:17 left to play.
The Pointers had an 11-0 run to build its lead, but UW-W answered with its own 11-0 run to make the score 27-23 with just two minutes left in the first half. UW-SP was unable to come back before the end of the half, and UW-W headed into half-time leading 29-27.
The ’Hawks maintained its lead in the start of the second half, but UW-SP came back with a 10-1 run to take a 44-39 lead.
UW-W came back with an 11-0 run, but the Pointers brought the game to a 54-54 tie, with 4:16 left to play.
UW-SP went strong from the free throw line, and Young’s last attempt to tie the game failed when the ball rattled in and out of the basket. Young has previously hit two game winners this year in the last 10 seconds of both games. He finished with 11 points and six assists.
“It was more of our preparation and our effort,” senior Quardell Young said. “It definitely wasn’t the way we play Warhawk basketball, but we’re looking forward to seeing them again and corrections will be made.”
Senior Steve Egan led UW-W with 16 points and seven rebounds, senior Rahjan Muhammad added a season-high 13 points since joining the team in January and senior Cody Odegaard posted 11 points, all in the second half.
“We needed to lose for that to be an eye-opener for us to bounce back and come back strong and finish out the season strong,” Young said.
The ’Hawks did just that with a win against River Falls that clinched its fourth straight 20-win season and its seventh in the last eight years.
Young posted a triple-double with 15 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
Miller said he is happy with the contributions from many different players.
Odegaard led the team with 19 points, followed by Egan with 16 points and nine rebounds. Egan had his first career 3-pointer on his first career attempt to end a 7-0 run by UW-W in the first half.
The team trailed the Falcons 35-32 at the end of the first half, but UW-W came back into the second half with a 23-0 run in the first five minutes. The ’Hawks led 55-35 with just under 15 minutes to go.
UW-W took its largest lead of the game 79-53 with seven minutes on the clock. The win moved the ’Hawks who is 13-1 in conference, into a tie for first place with Stevens Point who is 12-1 in WIAC.
“At this point in the year, it gets to be just going out and playing the games, who executes the best and plays the toughest typically wins,” Miller said.
UW-W will play its last home game at 7 p.m. on Feb. 18 against UW-Oshkosh, who is 7-7 in conference.
