UW-Whitewater held a three Yellowjackets that totaled 52 points January 12 in UW-Superior's 69-66 win in Superior,
to 15 points Saturday afternoon in Whitewater's 84-53 win in Kachel Gym in Williams Center in Whitewater.  UW-W, ranked sixteenth in the D3hoops.com poll, improved to 19-4 overall and 11-3 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  UW-W is one game out of first place with two left in the WIAC regular season.  UW-Superior is 9-15, 5-10 in the WIAC. 

A series of runs summed up the first half. UW-W opened the scoring on Alex Merg (Greendale/Greendale)'s free throw line jumper.  After two lead changes and a tie game, Whitewater grabbed the lead for good the rest of the way.  The Warhawks used a 8-0 run that began at the 11:14 mark to push their lead to double digits for the first time, at 19-9. Minutes later, the Yellowjackets responded with a 11-5 run of their own to close the gap to four, 24-20, with 4:56 left in the first half.  Immediately after Superior's run, Whitewater ended the first half with a 17-7 burst that pushed UW-W's lead to 41-27 at intermission.

Both teams shot well from the floor, 10-22 (46%) and 5-7 (71%) from three for Superior, and 18-33 (55%) and 4-8 (50%) from downtown for Whitewater. UW-W built their first half lead with the help of 12 UW-S turnovers that resulted in ten points for Whitewater. 

The Warhawks were provided a spark off the bench from sophomore guard KJ Evans (Beloit/Beloit) with ten points and seven rebounds.  The Yellowjackets were led by sophomore guard Austin Cahil, coming off the bench for 11 points on 4-4 from the field, including 3-3 from three point range.

Coming out of the locker room, UW-W picked right up where they left off.  After a pair of Quardell Young (Kenosha/Bradford)'s free throws, Whitewater's lead grew to a 20 point margin, 47-27, in the early stages of the second half. The closest UW-Superior came in the second half was 14 points at the 12:39 mark when the score was 47-33.  The final score was the largest margin in the game.

UW-W shot 32-58 (55%) from the field and 8-15 (53%) from three for the game. UW-S finished  20-44 (46%) and 7-14 (50%) from beyond the arc.  Whitewater doubled Superior at the line, making 12-17 to 6-12.  The Warhawk defense forced 20 turnovers and out-rebounded the Yellowjackets 33 to 23.

In the January loss at Superior junior guard Jarrod Peterson (20), 7-0 junior center Bronson Byrne (16), and senior forward Brendan Bauer (16) combined for 52 points.  Each was held to five points Saturday.  Together they went 1-4 from the arc and 2-6 from the line.

Sophomore point guard Quardell Young (Kenosha/Bradford) led four Warhawks scoring in double figures, with 17.  Young also dished out six assists with just one turnover.  Evans finished with 14 points, junior guard Alex Merg (Greendale/Greendale) 13, and freshman forward Darnell Harris (Milwaukee/Hamilton) 12.  Evans grabbed a game high nine rebounds.  Merg, fifth in the WIAC in free throw accuracy, went 3-3 at the line and passed for four assists.  Cahil, a perfect 7-7 from the field, 3-3 on threes, led UW-S with 17 points.  Peterson pulled down six rebounds for the Yellowjackets.

Whitewater will travel to Oshkosh Wednesday, then return home Saturday to close out the WIAC regular season with a 4:00 tipoff against UW-River Falls in Kachel Gym in Williams Center.