By Zach Hicks

The No. 15 ranked Warhawks men’s basketball team (13-3, 6-2) defeated the UW-Oshkosh Titans (6-11, 1-7) 68-50 tonight at Kachel Gym in Whitewater.

Sophomore point guard Quardell Young led the way for the ‘Hawks with 11 points and junior guard Eric Bryson and freshman forward Darnell Harris added 10.

Senior guard Sean Wise led the Titans with 14 but left the game midway through the second half with an ankle injury.

After struggling to increase the lead to double digits for most of the first half, Young sank a three pointer at the end of the half to give the ‘Hawks a 10 point lead at the half. Coming off of a disappointing loss to UW-Superior on Saturday, head coach Pat Miller said it felt good to bounce back.

“I thought it was a solid effort,” Miller said. “I thought we had good balance in scoring during the second half and did a good job of making the extra pass.”

Despite the Titans’ lowly record, they proved to be a tough test against the ‘Hawks throughout, playing physical defense and often diving for loose balls. The Titans trimmed the ten point lead that the ‘Hawks began the second half with to just five by the 11:20 mark, 46-41.

Shortly after that, the ‘Hawks responded with a run of the 13-2 variety, leading 59-43 with 5:29 remaining.

“I thought as the game went on, we wore them down a little bit,” Miller said. “They came out playing very hard. I thought Darnell [Harris] was key during that stretch, hitting the three and bringing down some key rebounds.”

The ‘Hawks will next play host to UW-Stout at 4 p.m. on Saturday. After playing just their fifth home game of the year, the team can look forward to enjoying the comforts of home as they will play only three more regular season games on the road.

“It’ll be nice [playing at home],” senior forward Luke Knoble said. “It’s always tough when you go on the road, especially when you’re playing far away like River Falls and Superior.”