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UW-Whitewater men roll over River Falls

WHITEWATER — UW-Whitewater coach Pat Miller wasn’t asking his team for better ball movement. He was demanding it.

Miller made that point clear during a spirited first-half timeout here Saturday afternoon against UW-River Falls.

Upon receiving clarification, Whitewater unloaded 54 first-half points on the helpless Falcons and rolled to an impressive 90-68 victory in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s basketball.

Myles McKay and Matt Goodwin had 24 and 20 points, respectively, while Kori Vernon and Billy Kolinske had 13 apiece, and Dustin Mitchell added 11 to help Whitewater (11-2, 3-1) stay close to unbeaten UW-Platteville (4-0) and UW-Stevens Point (3-0) in the WIAC.

The impressive statistics can only help Miller’s case for crisp ball movement down the stretch of the conference season.

“We’ve tried to convince them (the Warhawks) that to beat the best teams, we have to play a certain way, which is moving the ball and cutting and doing things better than we have been,” Miller said. “I thought today we did a better job of that, and we’re making progress in that area.”

The Warhawks displayed their improved offense from the opening tip with a 16-2 run, ignited by McKay’s seven points.

But a series of Whitewater lapses on both ends of the court helped the Falcons pull within 23-17 and gave Miller ammunition for a spirited timeout lecture.

Whitewater eventually got things in order and unloaded an 18-2 game-changing run late in the first that helped bury River Falls at 54-30 by halftime.

“We’ve had a couple good days of practice working hard on the things we need to get better at, and it showed up here today,” said Goodwin who made four three-pointers during the decisive run. “We really worked hard in practice, emphasizing pushing the ball and get transition baskets, which where we are at our best.”

Whitewater’s efforts really took shape in the second half when Phil Negri stole a Falcon pass and found a surging Vernon for a thunderous dunk that put Whitewater up 63-35 with 16:44 to play.

The spirited Warhawks didn’t allow River Falls to get any closer than 19 the rest of the way.

“River Falls was clearly a team that’s been playing well, so to do this against them indicates that we’re making some progress,” Miller said.

WHITEWATER 90, RIVER FALLS 68

River Falls (68)—Anderson 1-3 1-2 4, Koonkaew 4-12 1-1 9, Hannigan 2-7 0-0 4, Voeltz 7-8 4-6 18, Guerin 3-9 2-5 9, elling 1-2 0-0 2, Hendricks 0-0 1-2 1, Shelman 4-7 0-0 10, Utke 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 2-2 3-4 9, Cooper 0-1 0-0 0, Farmer 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 25-54 12-20 68.

Whitewater (90)—Goodwin 7-12 0-2 20, Negri 0-1 0-0 0, McKay 10-13 0-0 24, Vernon 6-11 1-1 13, Kolinske 5-8 3-5 13, Kingsby 1-2 0-1 2, Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Mitchell 5-7 1-2 11, Edmunds 1-1 0-1 2, Berry 0-1 0-0 0, Vines 2-3 1-1 5. Totals: 37-60 6-13 90.

UW-River Falls 30 38—68

UW-Whitewater 54 36—90

Three-point goals—River Falls 6-16 (Johnson 2-2, Shelman 2-3, Anderson 1-3, Guerin 1-3, Hannigan 0-1, Koonkaew 0-2, Farmer 0-1), Whitewater 10-19 (Goodwin 6-11, McKay 4-5, Kolinske 0-1, Williams 0-1, Berry 0-1). Fouled out—none. Rebounds—River Falls 24 (Voeltz, Guerin 4), Whitewater 36 (Vernon 10). Assists—River Falls 11 (Koonkaew 8), Whitewater 17 (Negri 9). Total fouls—River Falls 17, Whitewater 18.

Attendance—784.