ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The Warhawk women’s basketball team topped Washington University in St. Louis 58-56 in a top 25 battle to win the 25th annual McWilliams Classic. UW-Whitewater is ranked 25th according to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and is receiving votes in the D3hoops.com poll. The Bears are ranked 10th and 7th in the pair of national polls respectively. 

UW-Whitewater maintained the lead for more than 29 minutes in the game, but a late surge for WashU had the game coming down to the wire. 

The Bears held a one-point advantage, 12-11, after a fairly even first quarter. The Warhawks outscored the home squad 19-14 in the second quarter to take a 30-26 lead into halftime. UWW shot over 42% from the field and 50% from long range in the second quarter while the defense held WashU to 32% from the floor and 29% from three-point range. 

On the other side of the break, Brooke Stenklyft (Cambridge, Wis./Cambridge) sparked the Warhawks with an old fashioned three-point play in the first possession of the third quarter. Bri McCurdy (St. Croix Falls, Wis./St. Croix Falls) jumped a passing lane and hit the fastbreak layin for the next points to give UW-Whitewater a 35-26 lead early in the third. The Warhawk lead would hit nine, the largest of the game for either team, once again at the 3:02 mark on Stenklyft’s layup off of a Camryn Nies (Platteville, Wis./Platteville) steal. The Bears ended the quarter on an 8-1 run to narrow the gap to two, 43-21, heading into the fourth. 

UW-Whitewater never trailed in the fourth although WashU tied the game at 43-43 early in the quarter and then again at 56-56 with 46 seconds left. The Warhawks called timeout shortly after that bucket. UWW ran time off of the clock with Mia Gillis (Mundelein, Ill./Carmel Catholic) finding Stenklyft in the lane for a layup with 17 seconds left to give the Warhawks the lead. 

The UWW defense held WashU from getting a good look on the offensive end to seal the win. 

Stenklyft paced the Warhawks with 12 points on 5-9 from the field. McCurdy added 11 points. Nies led UWW with seven rebounds, three steals and a pair of assists while scoring nine. Gillis ended with nine points and six boards in the game. 

Gillis was named the Most Valuable Player at the McWilliams Classic. She averaged 13.0 points on 55% shooting from the floor with 4.5 rebounds per game. Stenklyft was also an All-Tournament Team selection after averaging 13.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. 

Editor’s note: This report is from the UW-W Athletics site.