UW-Whitewater, in the "others receiving votes" category of the USA Today/ESPN Division III poll, upset Illinois Wesleyan University, tied for sixth in the poll, 74-60 Tuesday night in the Shirk Center in Bloomington, Illinois.

Freshman guard Kaitlyn Thill set the tone for the game with a steal at 19:11 and layup at 19:09 for the first basket of the game and UW-W was off and running.  The Warhawks built a 16-5 lead at 13:58 on a Chantel Burg jumper, but the Titans came back to close to within 18-14 at 10:56.  Burg ended a 9-0 run for the Warhawks with a layup at 7:42 to put UW-W's lead up to 25-14.  Whitewater increased the margin to sixteen points three times late in the half before heading in to the locker room up 38-24. 

Whitewater shot 57% from the floor, and limited IWU to 33%, in building the lead.  The Warhawks also had a 24-11 rebound bulge. 

UW-W couldn't get out of the locker room fast enough, outscoring the Titans 13-4, building the lead to 51-28 with 14:41 left in the game.  Emily Bestor's three at 9:39 made it 58-31, the largest lead of the game.  A 72-60 lead with 1:17 left was as close as IWU would get the rest of the way.

A coaching cliche' is "everyone contributed", and on this night that was actually the case.  UW-W coach Keri Carollo used twelve players, eight of them scored.  Emily Bestor, Katie Burton, and Jamie Swanson scored eleven points each.  Dana Thompson led both teams with six rebounds, and Thill topped the Warhawks with five steals.  IWU's Nikki Preson was the game's leading scorer with 13 points, but she was held to 4-12 shotting from the floor, and just 3-10 from beyond the arc.  Hope Schulte of the Titans led both teams with five assists and six steals, but she also struggled from the floor, going 2-14.

Whitewater wound up out-rebounding Illinois Wesleyan 48-29, and although the Warhawks' shooting cooled somewhat to 47% for the game, UW-W's defense kept the Titans at 36% for the game. 

UW-W is 2-1.  IWU, one of the final eight in the NCAA III tournament last year, is 1-2.

The Warhawks' next game will be at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa November 27.  The first home appearance of the 2010-2011 season will be Wednesday, December 8 at 7:00 versus UW-Stevens Point.

For additional information:  Keri Carollo, UW-W coach, carollok@uww.edu or 262-472-5782