UW-Platteville took a six point lead into the half against UW-Whitewater, but were outscored by 15 in the second to fall 58-67 to the No. 24 team in the country Wednesday night on Bo Ryan Court.

After missing three games, Allison Prestegaard returned to score a game high 14 points. Lexis Macomber scored 13 off the bench for the Pioneers and Kassie Hansen added 12.

Trailing 13-17 after the first quarter, the Pioneers heated up in the second shooting over 53 percent and outscoring the Warhawks 22-12. After reaching the bonus with over three minutes remaining in the half, Prestegaard, Macomber, and Kassie Buchholz went a perfect 6-6 from the free-throw line to give UW-Platteville a 35-29 halftime lead.

The Pioneers held the visitors to 33 percent shooting in the first half, but the Warhawks started the third quarter on a 19-2 run and a six point lead quickly became an 11 point deficit.

UW-Platteville cut the lead to five with 6:47 remaining on a Jai Clemons three and again at 3:23 on a Macomber layup, but the Pioneers never got any closer.

Prestegaard also grabbed 13 rebounds to collect her first double-double of the season after recording a triple-double earlier this season against UW-Stout.

With the loss UW-Platteville falls to 5-13 overall and 1-6 in the WIAC and UW-Whitewater moves to 15-3, 5-2.

This Saturday the second round of WIAC play begins as UW-Platteville travels to UW-Stout for a 3 p.m. matchup in Johnson Fieldhouse. The Pioneers beat the Blue Devils 83-75 in their first game back on January 3.

By Korey Schroeder, Sports Information Assistant, 608.342.1255, schroederk@uwplatt.edu