Although the No. 23 UW-W men’s basketball team finished last week with a 1-1 record, the team’s overall play was a big win for coach Pat Miller and his team.

The Warhawks kicked off the week with a Wednesday game against UW-Oshkosh.

After going down 9-0 to start the game, the Warhawks responded with a big run of their own to take a 15-11 lead.

It was the only lead they would see the rest of the way in an 82-75 loss to the Titans.

Whitewater battled back, giving the Titans just a three point lead at halftime. After another big run to start the second, UW-Oshkosh pulled away.

Whitewater didn’t surrender, however, pulling within five of the visiting Titans midway through the second half. But the slow start and defensive errors proved to be too much.

“Starting down 9-0 obviously hurt us,” said senior Andre Brown, who scored 18 points.

Brown said the team can’t afford to have defensive mistakes.

“Coming into the second half getting back down by 10 again, and we’re trying to come back and chip and chip.  Against a good team like this you can’t have those little mistakes. Getting behind is just not the way we want to start.”

While the final outcome wasn’t a win, Miller was proud of his team for pushing to the end.

“I thought they did a good job,” he said. “They just kept plugging away. We put ourselves in a position where we could’ve won the game, and that’s what you have to continue to do.”

Brown hit 1,000 career points as a Warhawk in the loss.

“It puts an emphasis on how long I’ve been here. It’s something I’ve been very proud of,” he said. “Being in whitewater has changed my life. It will always have a place in my heart and it’s where I became a man.”

Melvin Brown Jr. led the Warhawks with 27 points. While he wasn’t happy with a loss, he too was happy with the effort the team gave.

“We’ve got to stay consistent and match the intensity,” he said. “We kept fighting but in the end we came up a little short. We have to come out with the same energy we had today.”

Miller agreed.

“We’re not playing at a high enough level in conference,” he said. “They’re just bad stretches of bad shot selection and breakdowns on defense.”

The coach also said that the team needed to keep the intensity from the Oshkosh game. Headed to UW-River Falls last Saturday, the Warhawks did just that.

The Warhawks overcame a seven point deficit at halftime to beat River Falls 87-85. Andre Brown led the Warhawks with 24 points, and teammate Dalton Menke finished with 15.

Whitewater sits with a 13-4 record overall and is now 2-4 in the WIAC. They head to Platteville on Wednesday before hosting UW-La Crosse this Saturday.