STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The No. 24 UW-Stevens Point women's basketball team outscored No. 6 UW-Whitewater 22-11 in the fourth quarter to record its eighth consecutive victory 63-56 in a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) matchup on Saturday afternoon for Alumni Day at Berg Gym.
Box Score UW-Stevens Point (11-2, 2-0 WIAC) trailed previously unbeaten UW-Whitewater (12-1, 1-1 WIAC) 49-45 with 6:52 to go in the fourth quarter but went on a 10-2 run to go ahead 55-51 with 2:39 left. The Warhawks twice got within two late but the Pointers made eight consecutive free throws in the final 1:23 to secure the win.
The victory was UW-Stevens Point's fourth win over a ranked team this season and the team's second against a top-10 squad. The Pointers' eight-game winning streak is the team's longest since starting the 2011-12 season 10-0 and the 2-0 start to WIAC play is its first since the same year.
Allie Miceli (Marseilles, IL/Ottawa Township) paced UW-Stevens Point with 13 points and nine rebounds in the game. Fellow senior post
Joann Wolfenberg (Adell, WI/Plymouth Comprehensive) registered 11 points and six rebounds, while four other Pointers scored between six and eight points.
The Pointers shot 26-for-31 (83.9 percent) from the free-throw line in the win, outscoring the Warhawks 26-6 from the charity stripe. The 26 made free throws were UW-Stevens Point's most in nearly a year since UWSP made 27 in a win over UW-Whitewater on Jan. 21, 2015.
Miceli, Wolfenberg,
Lauren Anklam (Ringle, WI/D.C. Everest) and
Taylor Douglas (Brodhead, WI/Brodhead) each made at least five three throws and combined to go 22-for-25 (88.0 percent) from the line. Douglas and Anklam were each 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.
Lisa Palmer netted a game-high 15 points on 7-for-11 shooting and hauled in eight rebounds to pace UW-Whitewater. Malia Smith, Andrea Meinert and Brooke Trewyn were all in double figures for the Warhawks, who shot 46.2 percent but could not overcome 19 turnovers.
Neither team led by more than four points in the opening half but the Pointers went into the break up 26-23 after a buzzer-beating jumper by
Lexi Roland (New London, WI/New London). However, the Warhawks came out of halftime with a 10-2 run to take a five-point lead, their largest of the game.
UW-Stevens Point responded with a 13-4 run to go up by four with 1:55 to go in the third, a run that included five points from Miceli and five from Roland. UW-Whitewater closed the third on an 8-0 run to take a 45-41 lead to the fourth and led by six early in the fourth before the Pointers fought back. The hosts did not trail for the final 6:05 of the game.
The Pointers play a pair of road conference games next week, starting with a trip to Platteville on Wednesday, Jan. 13 for a 7 p.m. game against the Pioneers.
