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Ben Boots scored a career-best 27 points against the Pioneers, including 20 in the second half with the help of 11 free throws.
Ben Boots scored a career-best 27 points against the Pioneers, including 20 in the second half with the help of 11 free throws.

Boots' 27-Point Outing Leads Titans Past Pioneers

Box Score

Ben Boots scored 20 of his career-best 27 points during the second half and UW-Oshkosh made its most free throws in more than six years as the Titans defeated UW-Platteville, 86-81, in a men's basketball contest held Saturday (Jan. 9) in Platteville.

Boots converted 5 of 8 3-point shots and 12 of 14 free throws off the bench for his second game of the season with 22-plus points.

UW-Oshkosh (8-5, 1-1 WIAC) scored its last 16 points from the charity stripe and ended the contest making 30 of 35 (85.7 percent) attempts from the foul line. The Titans made their most free throws since going for 33-for-38 against the University of Puget Sound (Wash.) on Nov. 27, 2009.

Kyle Bolger and Alex Olson added 13 points apiece for UW-Oshkosh, while Charlie Noone had 12. Nick Olson contributed six points and a game-high eight rebounds.

UW-Platteville (6-7, 0-2 WIAC) outshot UW-Oshkosh, 50 (33-66) to 43.4 (23-53) percent, from the floor and outrebounded the Titans, 37-27, but the Pioneers committed 27 fouls compared to just 10 for UW-Oshkosh. UW-Platteville made all five of its free throw attempts.

The Pioneers got out to a 16-9 lead on a 3-pointer by Dan Lowe with 11:31 to play in the first half, but the Titans answered with a 16-2 scoring run for a 25-18 advantage at the 5:41 mark. UW-Platteville missed 11 of 12 field goals during the UW-Oshkosh surge, while the Titans made four of their six shots from the field and all six free throws.

UW-Oshkosh, playing the last of seven straight games away from home, took a 20-18 lead on a layup by Bolger and held an advantage for the final 27:21 of the contest. The Titans increased their lead to 10 points at 30-20 and went into intermission with a 36-28 advantage.

UW-Platteville cut its deficit to two points at 50-48 with 9:45 remaining and 60-58 with 5:49 to play, but Boots knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and both of his free throws in the span of 93 seconds to increase the UW-Oshkosh lead to 72-62 with 2:02 remaining.

The Titans made 16 of 18 free throws during the final 2:02 to secure the victory. Bolger split a pair of tosses from the foul line to give UW-Oshkosh its largest lead of 11 points at 73-62 with 1:34 remaining.

Boston Johnson paced the Pioneers with 20 points and seven rebounds.

Matt Oestreich produced 19 points and five rebounds for UW-Platteville, which also received 11 points from Trey Sigel and 10 from Lowe. Cory Vaassen chipped in nine points, five rebounds and a game-best five assists.

UW-Oshkosh hosts UW-La Crosse on Wednesday (Jan. 13) in the Titans' first home game in Kolf Sports Center since Dec. 8.