LA CROSSE, Wis. – The UW-Whitewater women's basketball team came away with an 83-68 victory over UW-La Crosse Wednesday evening in La Crosse. UW-W is now 20-3 overall and 14-0 in the WIAC as UW-L falls to 10-13 on the season and 4-10 in conference play. 
 
The Warhawks were nearly perfect at the free throw line, converting on 24 of their 28 attempts, and they were able to capitalize on UW-L's 25 turnovers, turning the miscues into 24 points. Whitewater crashed the offensive glass, rebounding 21 of their missed shots, and capitalized by scoring 20 second chance points.
 
Katie Burton (Crystal Lake, IL/Crystal Lake Sourth) led all scorers with 18 points while Kaitlyn Thill (Belgium/Ozaukee) scored 17. Burton was perfect on the night, going 6-6 from the field, including 3-3 from long range, and 2-2 at the charity stripe. Thill led UW-W with nine boards and eight assists. Reilly Stewart (Wheaton, IL/Wheaton North) scored 12 points off the bench and Amy Mandrell (Forsyth, IL/Maroa-Forsyth) added 11 points to the Warhawks' total.
 
No team was able to pull away early, trading the lead seven times in the first 10 minutes of play with three ties. UW-Whitewater took control after the game was tied at 16 at the 9:08 mark as it made four consecutive free throws and Thill added a steal and a layup to go up by six, 22-16.
 
La Crosse pulled to within one, 22-21, before the Warhawks closed the half on an 18-8 run that was capped when Thill found Stewart for a three with eight seconds left in the half.
 
UW-W struggled shooting in the first half, hitting only 28% of its shots but made it up by going 8-8 from the free throw line while UW-L shot 48% from the field and 3-6 from the charity stripe. Whitewater held a 14-5 edge in turnovers and a 27-21 advantage on the boards.
 
The Warhawks were able to slowly extend their lead in the second half, increasing it to 14 (49-35) at the 16:06 mark and then to 18 (60-42) when Stewart found Burton for a three. UW-W took its largest lead when Thill hit a pair of free throws to go up 72-50 with 7:33 left in the game.
 
UW-Whitewater will look to clinch the WIAC regular season title when it takes on the Titans of UW-Oshkosh Saturday at 7:00.
 
 
PMP/ak