Whitewater's defense, which forced 15 turnovers and held River Falls to 29% field goal shooting in the first half, led to a 27-21 halftime lead.  With Whitewater in front 14-10, the Warhawks rattled off seven straight to take their biggest lead of the half, 21-10 with 7:20 left.  Still up 22-12 at 6:17, River Falls held UW-W scoreless for the next 4:08 to pull within 22-19. 
River Falls hung in with 11-15 shooting from the free throw line, besting Whitewater's 7-10. 

Senior guard Sam Quandt hit 3-4 from the field and led UW-W with eight points in the half.  Freshman forward Lisa Palmer and senior center Cortney Kumerow had four rebounds apiece.  Falcon senior forward Brittany Gregorich topped all scorers with ten points, including 6-6 from the charity stripe.

UW-W scored the first eight points of the second half, six coming from Kumerow.  The pendulum swung back and RF scored the next ten to cut Whitewater's lead to 35-31.  With the lead still at four, 41-37 at 5:21, Whitewater ran off eight straight to lead 49-37 with 2:50 left.  The only point that the Falcons could get the deficit back into single digits was 1:40 with the score 51-42.  Whitewater scored eleven of its last fourteen points from the free throw line as the Falcons tried to extend the game and stop the clock. 

Junior guard Kaitlyn Thill and Kumerow topped Whitewater with 14 points, with 16 of those 28 points coming at the line, where Thill went 8-9 and Kumerow 8-10.  Thill added a game high six steals, and Palmer tied for game honors with nine rebounds.  The Falcons were led by 17 points and nine boards from Gregorich, and junior forward Tess Lueders scored ten.

Whitewater will return home to host the UW-Platteville Pioneers Wednesday at 7:00 in Kachel Gym of Williams Center.