UW-Whitewater women’s basketball secured a 73-54 win over Wheaton. This win kept the No. 5 Warhawks undefeated as they carried on with their hot start to the season.
The scoring would start off with a Warhawk three from Bri McCurdy. Wheaton would answer with a basket of their own. But that’s the closest Wheaton would get to taking the lead as the Warhawks would run away with it early. Whitewater would go on a couple of runs in the first quarter with no answers from Wheaton with the score being 20-11. Wheaton would try to hang in there but were not able to contain Whitewater’s Kacie Carollo who started the game shooting 5-5. Whitewater’s defense held Wheaton to 10% from three and 22% from the field in the first half. The Warahwks would head into halftime with a 38-20 lead.
Whitewater would start the 3rd quarter off the way they started the game with a bucket and then a three pointer from McCurdy. They wouldn’t take their foot off the pedal as they would go on to outscore Wheaton 19-9 in the third. With a large lead the Warhawks were able to empty their bench with all 21 players on the roster getting minutes in the game as well as 12 different players recording a point.
“It’s great for them to have that experience and for me to see them in game situations and how they respond. And it just keeps morale in a positive place. It’s fun for our starters to watch their teammates who work really hard get to play,” said head coach Keri Carollo.
The Warhawks were phenomenal on defense this game as they would hold Wheaton to only one three pointer all game. As well as holding them to just 30% shooting. They would also force 18 turnovers and 10 blocks as a team. Playing fast they would capitalize off these turnovers with 24 points scored off the turnovers. As well as outsourcing Wheaton on the fast break 22-2.
“The game plan was to try and make them play fast. We know that’s not what they want to do. We wanted to make sure our press was really effective and press them as much as we could. And just make sure that it was the pace we wanted to play at,” said Carollo.
The Warhawks were led with strong performances by Kacie Carollo who had 14 points 9 rebounds and 7 assists and was also impressive on the defensive end leading the team with 4 blocks. Aleah Grundahl would also have a strong performance for the Warhawks with 15 points and 7 rebounds, five of them being offensive. Grundahl also led the team with 3 steals. Starter Maggie Trautsch had an off day for the Warhawks shooting only 23%. Coach Carollo however has no doubt that she will bounce back.
“She spends more time in the gym shooting than most of our players. So she’ll be fine,” Carollo said. “We are always looking forward to it and you’ll have some nights where you don’t shoot well. She’s a fantastic player and will bounce back.”
The Warhawks will wrap up the calendar year as they will travel to Puerto Rico to face off in the Puerto Rico Tournament where they will play Manhattanville College and Messiah University. They will then kick off WIAC play Jan. 3 when they will travel to UW-Oshkosh to face the Titans.
