The No. 19 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men's basketball team used an aggressive offensive approach Tuesday night to defeat UW-Stout 78-69 in a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship first round contest at Kachel Gymnasium.
The Warhawks (21-5 overall) advance to Thursday's semifinals, where they'll face second-seeded UW-Oshkosh on the road at 7 p.m.
UW-Whitewater, the tournament's No. 3 seed, made 24-of-32 from the free-throw line and shot 46.2 percent from the floor.
Four players scored in double figures for the Warhawks, including junior forward Demetrius Woodley, who tallied a career-high 24 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor and 11-of-12 at the free-throw line. He added six rebounds and two blocks in the effort.
Junior forward Scotty Tyler posted 17 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals, and junior guard Chris Jones registered 12 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Sophomore guard/forward Derek Rongstad collected 10 points, four rebounds and two assists.
The Blue Devils (13-13 overall) held a 9-5 lead four minutes into the contest. With the game tied at 17-17, UW-Whitewater scored 10 straight points, including four by Rongstad, to take a 27-17 advantage with 8:37 left in the first half.
UW-Stout whittled the Warhawks' lead down to one by the 3:23 mark before five straight points by Jones and a tip-in by senior guard Drew Bryson made it 39-32 two minutes later.
A 3-pointer by Tyler gave UW-Whitewater a 45-37 halftime lead.
The Blue Devils cut their deficit to one with 12:04 on the clock in the second half, but the Warhawks scored the next seven points to bring their lead to 60-52 with 8:28 left.
UW-Whitewater's lead reached double digits with 3:47 remaining on a layup by sophomore guard Andre Brown. From there, UW-Stout got no closer than seven.
The Warhawks finished with a 34-18 advantage on points in the paint.