Sean Dwyer tied his career scoring high with 19 points. He tallied 17 points in the first half, including five 3-point baskets.
Sean Dwyer tied his career scoring high with 19 points. He tallied 17 points in the first half, including five 3-point baskets.

Titans Defeat Blugolds For Third WIAC Road Win

Sean Dwyer and Max Schebel came off the bench to spark the UW-Oshkosh men's basketball team to a 78-66 victory over UW-Eau Claire on Saturday (Jan. 17) in Eau Claire.

Dwyer tied his career high with 19 points in 17 minutes of action while Schebel added 16 points in 18 minutes. They both made 6 of 8 shots from the floor. Dwyer tallied 17 points in the first half while Schebel had 10 in the second.

The Titans' Alex Olson scored 20 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists. He was 6 of 10 shooting from the floor, including 4-for-8 from behind the 3-point arc. Olson has scored 20 or more points in five of his last seven games.

AJ Mueller chipped in with nine points and a game-high seven rebounds for UW-Oshkosh.

The Titans shot 56.9 percent (29-51) from the field, including 50 percent (9-18) on 3-pointers. It was the Titans' best shooting performance in the 117 games since connecting on 58.8 percent against Silver Lake College on Feb. 20, 2010.

UW-Oshkosh (10-6, 4-3 WIAC) moved into a tie for third place with UW-Platteville (11-5, 4-3 WIAC) in the league standings. UW-Eau Claire (6-10, 2-5 WIAC) remained tied for sixth.

The Titans, who won their fourth straight game over UW-Eau Claire, took the lead for good at 10-7 on a 3-point basket by Olson with 16:46 remaining in the first half. UW-Oshkosh made nine of its first 11 field goal attempts and held a 26-12 lead with 11:53 left in the first period.

Dwyer's fourth 3-pointer of the game extended UW-Oshkosh's advantage to 33-16, and a jumper by Schebel gave the Titans their largest lead of 19 points at 40-21 with 7:06 to go before halftime.

The Blugolds used an 11-2 run to trim their deficit to 42-32 at the 3:19 mark. Two layups by Kyle Bolger pushed the Titans' lead back to 46-32, but a basket by UW-Eau Claire's Tyson Kalien with 30 seconds remaining made the score 46-34 at intermission.

UW-Oshkosh converted 17 of 27 (63 percent) field goal attempts in the first half, including 8 of 12 (66.7 percent) from 3-point range. UW-Eau Claire finished the half shooting 57.7 percent (15-26) from the floor.

UW-Eau Claire scored five straight points to pull within 52-44 with 13:43 to play, but UW-Oshkosh responded with a 15-7 run for a 67-51 lead with 8:42 remaining.

The Blugolds answered with a 15-5 spurt to get within 72-66 with just under two minutes left, but the Titans closed out the contest by scoring the last six points, including four by Olson.

Jack Martinek led UW-Eau Claire with 15 points off the bench. The Blugolds also received 12 points from Jacob Kohner, 11 points and six rebounds from Lewis Mau and 10 points from Kalien, who entered the game ranked second the WIAC with an average of 16.4 points per game.

UW-Eau Claire ended the game shooting 50 percent (26-52) from the floor, 50 percent (7-14) from behind the 3-point line and 63.6 percent (7-11) on free throws.

UW-Oshkosh, which has won three of its four WIAC games this season on the road, returns home to face UW-La Crosse on Wednesday (Jan. 21) in Kolf Sports Center.