The No. 6 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women's basketball team used a surge in the third quarter and a suffocating defense Wednesday night to pick up a 60-48 victory at UW-La Crosse in a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest.
The Warhawks (16-1 overall, 7-0 WIAC) held the Eagles to 28.8 percent shooting and forced 24 UWL turnovers. UW-W outscored UW-La Crosse 34-12 on points in the paint and 18-11 on points off turnovers.
Rebekah Schumacher knocked down three 3-pointers and hit all four of her free throw attempts on her way to a game-high 13 points. Aleah Grundahl also reached double figures with 10 points to go along with six rebounds and two assists.
Johanna Taylor stuffed the box score with nine points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals and five blocks. Maggie Trautsch contributed eight points, six rebounds and two steals, and Kacie Carollo finished with seven points, five rebounds and a team-high three steals.
UW-Whitewater led by as many as four points in the first quarter. The two teams exchanged the lead twice, and Trautsch's layup in the final seconds of the period gave UW-W a 17-14 advantage.
Schumacher broke a 20-20 tie near the midway point of the second quarter with a 3-pointer that was part of a 9-2 UW-W run capped by a jump hook by Abby Belschner that made it 29-22 with 1:15 on the clock. UW-La Crosse (10-7, 2-4) scored the final bucket of the half to cut the Warhawks' lead to 29-24.
Trautsch and Schumacher converted back-to-back baskets to give UW-Whitewater a 10-point lead just over two minutes into the third. Grundahl's layup off a Carollo steal gave UW-W its largest lead of the game to that point at 40-26 just before the midway point of the quarter.
The Eagles cut their deficit to eight, but the Warhawks scored the last six points of the quarter, including a layup just before the buzzer by Taylor, for a 50-36 advantage.
UW-Whitewater continued to build its lead in the fourth, holding its largest margin of the contest at 56-37 following Taylor's layup with 7:25 on the clock. UW-La Crosse got as close as nine the rest of the way.
The Warhawks visit No. 18 UW-Eau Claire this Saturday for a 5 p.m. tipoff.