Titans Hook Pirates In First Ever Meeting
SPOKANE, Wash.- In its first game in Washington state this weekend, the UW-Oshkosh men's basketball team handed Whitworth University (Wash.) a 79-68 loss on Thursday night (Dec. 7).
The No. 24 nationally ranked Titans (5-1) and Pirates (5-2, 2-0 NWC) had never met before their Thursday night meeting in Spokane.
UW-Oshkosh shot 49.3 percent (30-of-61) from the field, 48.4 percent (15-of-31) from three, leading Whitworth's 39.7 percent and 38.1 percent from each category. The Pirates held the edge in free throw shooting percentage, 66.7 to 40. Both teams pulled in 28 defensive rebounds while the Pirates' 15 offensive more than doubled the Titans' seven. Whitworth committed 13 turnovers and Oshkosh capitalized, scoring 17 points on balls the Pirates lost.
Quinn Steckbauer (Sr. • Merrill) scored 24 points, going eight-of-13 from the field, five-of-eight from three and three-of-four from the line. Also reaching double-digit points were Will Mahoney (Sr. • Appleton) and Joseph Adamson (Sr. • Horicon) at 16 and 11.
Adamson paced the Titans with eight rebounds (one offensive), while Mahoney recorded five assists. Adamson and Steckbauer each stole two balls, and they were joined by Carter Thomas (So. • Neenah) with a block each.
The Pirates scored the first six points of the game, but nine straight points from Oshkosh flipped the lead. The Titans led by as much as five points before a 6-0 Pirate spurt changed the lead again.
Mahoney made his first three-point shot of the game at 8:43 to change the lead for the third and final time of the half. Oshkosh increased the deficit by four points before Whitworth scored again and led by as much as 9 points on a Michael Metcalf-Grassman (Fr. • Shawano/Waukesha) layup with 4:05 to go which the Pirates responded to with an 8-0 run. The Titans held the lead and paced Whitworth 41-36 at the half.
Whitworth started the second half hot, connecting on three straight shots and adding a free throw to for a 43-41 lead. The Titans came back to tie it up at 45 and kept the score close until Reed Seckar (So. • Oshkosh) roped a three for the final lead of the night.
After Jake Holtz made a turnaround jumper to tie the game up at 54-54 with 12:35 remaining, the Titans held the Pirates to just 2-of-14 from the field, while they scored 17 of their own points to lead 70-58 by the time the second half media timeout rolled around. Whitworth outscored Oshkosh 10-6 in the final five minutes of the game capped off by a Colton Looney three with 22 seconds left, however the 12-point lead was too much to overcome, and the Titans took their fifth win of the season.
The Titans will face Whitman College (Wash.) on Saturday at 8 p.m. central time in Walla Walla. This will also be the first meeting between UW-Oshkosh and the Blues.