Yellowjackets 67, Whitewater 59
Box Score
It's been a season of firsts for UW-Superior women's basketball coach Don Mulhern and his Yellowjackets in 2012-2013. And Saturday afternoon's home game with the UW-Whitewater Warhawks proved to be no exception for the seventh year coach and his team.
Getting a combined 46 points from Sally Linzmeier (Valders, Wis./Valders) and Connie Urmanski (Edgar, Wis./Edgar), the Yellowjackets rallied from a six-point halftime deficit and pulled away late for an impressive 67-59 win over UW-Whitewater before a boisterous home gathering at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium.
With the win, the Yellowjackets not only improved to 13-3 on the season, they tied the school's single-season record for victories set in 1979-80. With the win the Yellowjackets also defeated a nationally ranked opponent for the second time in a season, also a school record.
UW-Superior also upped their conference record to 5-2 while handing the No. 15 ranked Warhawks (12-4 overall, 6-1 WIAC) their first loss in league play.
UW-Whitewater jumped to an early lead in the opening minutes of the first half, taking advantage of their full court pressure defense to take an 11-7 lead on a layup by Mary Merg with 16:48 left on the clock.
The Warhawks continued to hold the lead for the next nine minutes, upping their edge to 28-16 on a jumper by Emily McCullick with 7:46 left before heading to the intermission holding a 36-30 advantage.
A layup by Linzmeier on the first possession of the second half brought UW-Superior to within 36-32 with 19:50 left in regulation.
UW-Whitewater scored the next five points for a 41-32 bulge following two free throws by Kaitlyn Thill with 15:54 showing on the clock.
But the Yellowjackets continued to fight back, getting a layup from Linzmeier with 12:32 left to even matters at 44-44 before a short jumper by Urmanski and another layup from Linzmeier gave UW-Superior their first lead of the second half at 54-52 with 7:56 left to be played.
UW-Superior upped the lead to 59-54 on a free throw by Linzmeier at the 4:44 mark and took their largest lead of the game just under three minutes later as Kristen Nett (Green Bay, Wis./Bay Port) finished off a pretty feed from Urmanski to give the Yellowjackets a 65-55 edge with just 1:15 remaining.
The Warhawks would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way as Urmanski connected on two free throws in the final 55 seconds to seal the victory.
Linzmeier scored 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds for the Yellowjackets in 39 minutes of play. Urmanski meanwhile added 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting in 38 minutes of game action.
UW-Whitewater was paced by Courtney Kumerow with 14 points. Merg added 11 points while Megan Theune pitched in with 10 points for the Warhawks.
Milestone Update: Urmanski reached the top ten in games played, as she appeared in her 92nd career game. Her next game will move her into a tie for eighth on the all-time list with Brenda Hedrick (1990-95) and Ashley Laidley (2004-08). Urmanski remains seventh on the all-time scoring list, and her 23 points give her 1,042 in her career, 15 behind Hailey Hart (2008-12) for sixth place. Urmanski added three more three pointers to her school record, which now stands at 177. Hillary Peterson (Sturgeon Lake, Minn./Moose Lake) had a pair of blocks in the game and now has 50 in her career, fourth on the all-time list. She is five blocks behind Melissa Annis (1996-98).
The Yellowjackets will host UW-River Falls Wednesday at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium. The opening tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.