Pioneers take down #8 Warhawks

UW-Platteville went on the road and earned perhaps its most impressive win of the season, knocking off eighth-ranked UW-Whitewater 84-67 Wednesday.

The Pioneers, who received votes in this week's d3hoops.com poll, improved to 15-3 overall and 5-2 in league play. Coach Jeff Gard's club moved within a game of first-place UW-Stevens Point, who fell 68-53 at UW-Oshkosh. 

The hot-shooting Pioneers made 62 percent of their shots (31-50) while leading from start to finish.  UW-Platteville scored the first eight points and went up 23-9, eventually leading 37-24 at the half.  The Warhawks, who made just 7-28 shots in the first half, cut the deficit to 41-31in the first 2:25 of the first half. Matt Oestreich (six points) and Carter Voelker (four) led the Pioneers on a 10-0 run for a 51-31 advantage. 

UWW sliced the deficit under double digits one more time, when Mitchell Pfriefer made a three-pointer with 11 minutes left, making the score 58-49. The Pioneers' Jake Showalter responded with a layup, and Voelker drilled a three-point basket to push the lead to 14 points. The hosts never came closer than 10 the rest of the way.

Voelker, Oestreich and Quentin Shields each scored 15 for the Pioneers, while Clay Gerds had 13 and Robert Duax 12.

Andre Brown scored 16, and Derek Rongstad 15 for the Warhawks, who were held to 37 percent from the floor and dropped to 14-4, 4-3.

UW-Platteville returns to the Bo Ryan Court Saturday night for a 7 p.m. contest with UW-Stout. It is both Alumni Day and Garding Against Cancer, with one of the season's bigger crowds expected.

By Paul Erickson, Director, UW-Platteville Communications, 608.342.1194, pr@uwplatt.edu