Schmidt Surpasses 1,000 Points In Titans' Win Over Pioneers

Taylor Schmidt surpassed a career scoring milestone and Emma Melotik poured in a career-best 15 points as the nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team rolled to an 84-51 victory over Carroll University on Saturday (Dec. 3) in Waukesha.

UW-Oshkosh (5-0), ranked 12th in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, tallied the first 15 points of the game before building leads of 41-17 at halftime and 63-30 after three quarters.

Schmidt scored the first seven points of the contest, and her jumper with 8:14 to go in the first quarter gave her 1,001 points in her four-year UW-Oshkosh career.

In Saturday's win, Schmidt tallied 12 points on 3 of 5 shooting from the floor and 6 of 7 from the free throw line. She concluded the game with 1,009 career points. Schmidt becomes the 20th player in program history to score 1,000 points and the first since Megan Wenig in 2013.

Melotik went 5-for-6 from 3-point range and added a game-high four assists off the bench to lead four double-digit scorers for the Titans.

UW-Oshkosh received 50 points from its reserves as 16 Titans received playing time, including 13 who saw action for at least eight minutes.

Titan starter Alex Richard and reserve Kylie Moe scored 10 points apiece while Taylor Dagon tallied a career-high eight points off the bench and starter Morgan Kokta contributed seven.

UW-Oshkosh, which lost their last meeting with the Pioneers by a 62-54 score in 2010, owned advantages in field goal percentage (.630 to .340), 3-point field goal percentage (.667 to .278), free throw percentage (.800 to .571), rebounds (29-26), assists (18-8) and turnovers (14-12).

The Titans had their best shooting performance since also making 63 percent (29-46) from the field against UW-River Falls on Jan. 1, 2014, and 66.7 percent (6-9) from 3-point range against UW-Superior on Feb. 22, 2014. UW-Oshkosh had not shot better than 60 percent from both the field and from beyond the 3-point arc since an 80-69 victory at UW-Whitewater on Feb. 15, 2006.

A 3-pointer by Kokta gave the Titans a 12-0 lead midway through the first quarter, and a three-point play by Isabella Samuels capped UW-Oshkosh's 15-point scoring run at the 4:35 mark.

Carroll University (0-7) missed its first four shots from the floor and committed five turnovers before cutting its deficit to 15-2 with 3:46 remaining in the first period.

Consecutive layups by Dagon pushed the Titans' lead back to 22-7, and 3-pointer by Moe gave UW-Oshkosh a 25-9 advantage after one quarter.

A pair of free throws by Caylee Koker pulled Carroll University to within 30-14 early in the second quarter, but UW-Oshkosh scored 11 of the final 14 points of the period as two free throws from Melanie Schneider gave the Titans a 41-17 advantage at intermission.

A three-point play by Moe provided UW-Oshkosh with a 69-32 lead early in the fourth quarter while a layup by Dagon gave the Titans their largest lead of 38 points at 71-33 with 7:30 remaining.

Carroll University's Brittney Wald led all players with 16 points, nine rebounds and three steals. She connected on 7 of 17 shots from the floor and tallied seven points in the third period.

Koker had 10 points and five rebounds for the Pioneers while Megan Lund added nine points and five rebounds.

UW-Oshkosh returns home to face 19th-ranked Wheaton College (Ill.) next Saturday (Dec. 10) in Kolf Sports Center.