UW-Whitewater wins wheelchair title

By GAZETTE STAFF Saturday, March 14, 2009

WHITEWATER — UW-Whitewater not only revenged its only loss of the season, it more importantly added its eighth National Intercollegiate Wheelchair basketball championship with an 82-76 victory over the University of Illinois at Williams Center on Saturday afternoon.

The national champs had to bounce back from a 37-33 halftime deficit to defeat their nemisis. The Illini handed the Warhawks (32-1) their lone defeat of the season.

Joe Chambers and Chris Okon led Whitewater, scoring 29 and 27 points respectively. Chambers scored 36 and 32 points in the Warhawks’ first two tournament victories.

Okon, who scored one basket in the Warhawks’ semifinal victory over Arizona on Friday, roared back with eight baskets, including five three-pointers. Chambers made 14 baskets and went 1-for-1 from three-point range.

Whitewater maded seven three-point baskets to Illinois’ two. The Warhawks made 15 of 19 free throws to six of 12 for Illinois.

Texas-Arlington finished third with a 63-55 victory over Arizona.

Alabama defeated Edinboro, 56-40, in the fifth-place game.

In the seventh-place game, Southwest Minnesota State defeated Missouri, 50-28

WHITEWATER 82, ILLINOIS 76

Illinois (76)—Grunstein, 2-0-4; Serio, 7-1-16; Bell, 3-2-7; Pike, 1-1-3; Rodarte, 3-0-6; Gugliotta, 3-0-6; Smurr, 10-1-22; Baltazar, 1-0-2; Wagner, 2-0-4. Totals: 34-6-76.

Whitewater (82)—Okon, 8-6-27; Bienek, 4-3-12; Hinze, 4-4-12; Chambers, 14-0-29. Totals: 30-15-82.

University of Illinois 37 39—76

UW-Whitewater 33 49—82

Three-point goals—Illinois 2 (Serio, Smurr). Whitewater 7 (Okon 5, Bienek, Chambers). Free throws missed—Illinois 6, Whitewater 4. Total fouls—Illinois 19, Whitewater 13.

Before you post a comment, consider this:

Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy Agreement

Keep it clean. Comments that are obscene, vulgar or sexually oriented will be removed. Creative spelling of such terms or implied use of such language is banned, also.
Don't threaten to hurt or kill anyone.
Be nice. No racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person.
Harassing comments. If you are the subject of a harassing comment or personal attack by another user, do not respond in-kind. Hit the "Suggest Removal" button on offensive comments.
Share what you know. Give us your eyewitness accounts, background, observations and history.
Do not libel anyone. Libel is writing something false about someone that damages that person's reputation.
Ask questions. What more do you want to know about the story?
Stay focused. Keep on the story's topic.
Help us get it right. If you spot a factual error or misspelling, email newsroom@gazettextra.com or call 1-800-362-6712.
Remember, this is our site. We set the rules, and we reserve the right to remove any comments that we deem inappropriate.

Post Comment

Commenting requires registration.

News:

Opinion:

Blogs | Columns | Political Cartoons | Polls

Sports:

Multimedia:

Community:

Births | Couples | Obituaries | Death Notices

Blogs

Blog List | Latest Blog Entries

Services:

Copyright ©2007 Bliss Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Use of this material and this site are subject to the GazetteExtra Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Content may not be published, broadcast, re-distributed or re-written.