Men's Basketball
Warhawks Make it Seven in a Row with Win at River Falls
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men's basketball team won it seventh consecutive game, defeating UW-River Falls 73-68 in the Karges Center in River Falls Saturday afternoon. With the win UW-W's season mark improves to 11-3 overall, and the Warhawks pulled back to even in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference at 3-3. UW-RF is now 4-9 overall and 0-5 in league play.
Whitewater's first lead in the game was 19-18 at 8:14 in the first, thanks to the first of two free throws by Rob Perry. River Falls came back to take the lead, eventually up to 25-22, but the Warhawks took a 35-34 margin in to halftime as sophomore guard Jeremy Manchester hit a shot as time expired. Senior center Angelo Griffin had 13 of Whitewater's points in the first half, and sophomore guard Eric Kossoris hit 6 of 9 shots on the way to 14 points for UW-RF.
River Falls re-took the lead, on a Kossoris jumper, as the second half began and built it to as many as five points (48-43 at 12:46). UW-W stayed close, and finally took the lead for good at 56-54 on a layup by sophomore guard Giovanni Riley, two of his personal collegiate high 20 points. UW-W built the lead to as many as seven, 70-63 at 0:37, in closing out the win.
Griffin, Whitewater's leading scorer with a 14.5 average, led the Warhawks with 21 points, his third 20+ point game of the season, while also grabbing a game-high 8 rebounds. Griffin hit 9 of 13 shots from the floor and 3-3 from the line. Riley's 20, on 7-9 shooting from the floor, and 15 points from junior guard Melvin Williams topped UW-W scorers. The Falcons' Kossoris took game scoring honors with 26, including 3-5 from beyond the arc. Junior center Muris Lucarevic and sophomore guard Hans Hoeg added 13 and 12, respectively, for River Falls.
Whitewater will host UW-Eau Claire Tuesday at 7:00 in Kachel Gym of Williams Center. Next up for River Falls is a Tuesday night home game against UW-Superior.
For additional information:
UW-Whitewater men's basketball web site: www.uww.edu/athletics/mbasketball
UW-River Falls men's basketball web site: http://www.uwrf.edu/sports/sports0405/mbb_menu.htm
WIAC men's basketball web site: http://www.uwsa.edu/wiac/mbasket/