PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – In yet another ranked WIAC battle, the No. 17 University of Wisconsin-Platteville women's basketball team fell short, 50-46, in a battle against No. 16 UW-Whitewater on Wednesday night.
Trailing by nine after three quarters, the Pioneers (17-5, 7-4 WIAC) rallied behind a 10-1 run at the start of the fourth quarter, but the Warhawks (17-5, 7-4 WIAC) held off the comeback attempt down the stretch.
UW-Platteville was paced by senior
Madalyn Reichmann and sophomore
Ava Hanson who both reached double-digits with 10 points. Right behind was senior
Ashley Weir with nine points.
The Warhawks held a slim 11-10 lead after one quarter and turned up the pressure to lead 28-19 at halftime. While the Pioneers could not cut into that deficit in the third quarter, they continued to battle and prevented that deficit from growing any greater before the start of the fourth quarter.
Weir started off the comeback attempt with back-to-back layups and the 10-1 run in less than four minutes was capped by a steal by senior
Alexis Strom and a layup from Hanson, tying the game at 39 with 6:05 to go. The Warhawks reclaimed the lead, but Weir drained a three-pointer with 1:14 on the clock to take the lead 44-43. UW-Whitewater went up by three with 17 seconds remaining, and a timeout by Platteville followed by a layup from Riechman cut the Warhawks' advantage to 47-46 with four seconds remaining. A quick foul and two made free throws gave the Pioneers one final chance, but the inbounded pass went out of bounds and turned the ball back over to Whitewater.
On the glass, the Pioneers held a 41-35 advantage, including 17-9 in offensive rebounds. Senior
Ella Mackiewicz pulled down a game-high 10 boards while Weir added eight rebounds.
Overall, the Pioneers shot 30.2 percent (19-of-63) from the field, 17.4 percent (4-of-23) from three-point range, and 57.1 percent (4-of-7) from the foul line.
The Warhawks finished shooing 36.5 percent (19-of-52) from the floor, 29.4 percent (5-of-17) from beyond the arc, and 58.3 percent (7-of-12) from the free throw line.
UW-Platteville will hit the road on Saturday, Feb. 14 and travel to UW-River Falls for a 3 p.m. game.
