Titans Win Nationally Ranked Showdown With Eagles

UW-Oshkosh knocked down a season-high 13 3-pointers, including seven by Eddie Muench, on the way to a wire-to-wire 80-77 victory over UW-La Crosse in a showdown of highly ranked Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball teams Saturday (Feb. 12) in Kolf Sports Center.

Muench, who shot 9-for-13 from the field overall and 7-for-8 from 3-point range, poured in 27 points while dishing out three assists as UW-Oshkosh completed the regular season sweep over the Eagles. Muench's .875 3-point percentage is tied for the 12th-best in WIAC history and second-best by a Titan.

UW-Oshkosh (19-3, 9-2 WIAC), ranked third in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, scored the first five points of the game and never relinquished the lead against seventh-ranked UW-La Crosse (19-4, 9-4). The Titans, who have won five of the last six meetings in the series, downed the Eagles by a 56-53 score Dec. 4 in La Crosse.

The Titans owned a 31-22 lead at halftime and held a 65-54 advantage with 7:18 remaining. UW-La Crosse pulled within 74-71 with 34 seconds to play but committed a turnover on its ensuing possession. After Cole Booth registered a steal and split a pair of free throws to extend the UW-Oshkosh lead to 75-71, Craig Steele buried a 3-pointer to cut the Eagles deficit to 75-74 with eight ticks to go.

Muench sank two free throws a second later to up the UW-Oshkosh lead to 77-74, but Steele made a pair of free throws of his own to pull the Eagles within 77-76. Another two Booth makes at the charity stripe provided UW-Oshkosh a precarious 79-76 advantage. The Titans elected to foul UW-La Crosse again, and Austin Westra split two free throws to make the score 79-77 with three seconds left. Westra's purposefully missed second attempt from the line was pulled down by a leaping Eric Peterson, who sank one of two shots at the charity stripe with 1.3 seconds to play to provide the final score.

UW-La Crosse's Ethan Anderson got a heaved, one-handed attempt from near midcourt off in time, but the shot at a tying 3-pointer was well off the mark to the right as the buzzer sounded. UW-Oshkosh, which has won 18 of its last 19 home games, is now 4-1 this season versus teams ranked in the top eight in the country.

Hunter Plamann and Levi Borchert added 17 and 15 points, respectively, for the Titans, who also received eight points and a team-leading eight rebounds from Peterson, six points from Booth and five points from Quinn Steckbauer.

Plamann and Borchert both collected six rebounds and distributed three assists. The Titan trio of Muench, Borchert and Plamann combined to shoot 23 of 38 (.605) from the floor as Borchert, a 2021 D3hoops.com Third Team All-American, was 7-for-11 to improve his season field goal percentage to .633.

UW-Oshkosh went 30 of 56 (.536) from the field, 13 of 25 (.520) from beyond the 3-poinr arc and 7-for-15 (.467) at the free throw line. The Titans, who held an 11-9 advantage in assists, shot better than 50% from the floor for the ninth time this season. UW-Oshkosh, only the second team to reach 80 points against the Eagles this season, had connected on 12 3-pointers on three occasions this year. Six of the eight Titans who saw the floor Saturday made at least one 3-pointer.

UW-La Crosse shot 48.4% (31-64) from the floor, 33.3% (4-12) from 3-point range and 68.8% (11-16) at the foul line. The Eagles had advantages of 35-31 in rebounds and 7-9 in turnovers. Both teams blocked four shots and created two steals.

UW-Oshkosh, which had outrebounded 19 of its previous 21 opponents, went into the night leading the country with a .262 3-point percentage defense and ranked fourth at 9.3 turnovers per contest. The Eagles, who fell to 11-2 on the road this year, was fifth nationally by shooting 39.7% from beyond the arc.

Seth Anderson paced UW-La Crosse with 23 points and nine rebounds while WIAC leading scorer Ethan Anderson, averaging 19.1 points per game entering Saturday, had 20 and Steele 14 off the Eagles bench. Seth Anderson scored 21 of his 23 points during the second half and concluded the night shooting 10 of 17 from the field.

Sean Suchomel contributed seven points and a game-best four assists for the Eagles.

UW-Oshkosh got out to a fast start, making five of its first six field goal attempts as Plamann drilled a 3-pointer and drove for a layup during the opening 100 seconds for a 5-0 lead. Muench, who made each of his first seven shots from beyond the arc, later hit a 3-pointer to increase the Titans advantage to 24-12 with 8:53 left in the first half.

The Titans led by at least four points from the 16:33 mark of the first half until a Westra layup trimmed the Eagles deficit to 69-66 with 1:53 to play in the game. However, a Plamann three-point play increased the UW-Oshkosh lead to 72-66 just 19 seconds later. A Plamann jumper then extended the advantage to 74-67 with 61 seconds remaining before Seth Anderson and Ethan Anderson layups on consecutive possessions pulled with Eagles within 74-71.

UW-Oshkosh's previous results against top-eight teams this season included wins by scores of 83-67 at second-ranked UW-Platteville on Jan. 19 and 65-51 at home over second-ranked UW-Platteville on Feb. 2. The Titans' lone top-eight setback this season was a 65-63 decision at fourth-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University on Nov. 13.

The Titans conclude the regular season at UW-Whitewater on Wednesday (Feb. 16).

Photo by Patrick Flood, UW-Oshkosh University Marketing & Communications