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Alex Richard scored nine points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds to help the Titans defeat the Falcons.
Alex Richard scored nine points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds to help the Titans defeat the Falcons.

Titans Register Road Win Over Defending WIAC Champion

Eliza Campbell led a balanced UW-Oshkosh offense with 11 points as the nationally ranked Titans defeated UW-River Falls, 65-55, in a women's basketball contest held Saturday (Jan. 21) in River Falls.

UW-Oshkosh (15-2, 5-1 WIAC) held an advantage for the final 31:39 of the game and led by as many as 14 points during the fourth quarter. The Titans have limited 14 opponents to fewer than 56 points this season.

UW-River Falls (5-12, 0-6 WIAC), last year's conference champion, lost its ninth consecutive game.

The Titans owned advantages in field goal percentage (.442 to .357), free throw percentage (.813 to .444), rebounds (37-34), assists (13-12) and turnovers (11-10). UW-Oshkosh held the Falcons to 29 percent (9-31) shooting from the floor during the first half.

UW-Oshkosh entered the contest ranked 10th in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com. The Titans, who were also leading the country with 12.1 turnovers per game while listing fourth in scoring defense at 45.4 points per contest, committed just two turnovers during the second half.

Campbell, who led the Titans in scoring for the ninth time this season, added six rebounds and three assists. Campbell has registered double-digit point totals 13 times this year.

Alex Richard had nine points and a game-high seven rounds for UW-Oshkosh.

Morgan Kokta contributed eight points and five rebounds for the Titans, who also received eight points from Madeline Staples and seven points apiece from Kylie Moe and Taylor Schmidt. Emma Melotik and Kendell Truttmann both registered three assits.

UW-Oshkosh took the lead for good at 16-14 on a pair of free throws from Isabella Samuels with 99 seconds left in the first quarter. A 3-pointer by Moe extended the Titan advantage to 19-14, and UW-Oshkosh held a 19-15 lead after one period.

The Titans tallied seven consecutive points to open a 29-17 lead on a 3-pointer from Melotik with 4:25 left in the second quarter. The Falcons answered with eight straight points – all by Taylor Karge – to narrow their deficit to 29-25 with less than one minute to play before halftime, but a pair of free throws from Campbell provided the Titans a 31-25 lead at intermission.

Karge accounted for 14 of the Falcons' first-half points.

Melotik, who concluded the contest with five points, drilled a jumper to open the second-half scoring, and UW-Oshkosh led by at least seven points for the final 18:46.

A jumper by Staples increased the UW-Oshkosh lead to 50-40 with 9:13 to go in the fourth period, and the Titans maintained a double-digit lead for the remainder of the contest.

UW-Oshkosh built its largest lead of 14 points on two occasions during the final quarter. A layup from Campbell gave the Titans a 54-40 advantage with 4:43 left, and a basket by Richard provided UW-Oshkosh with a 56-42 lead with 4:04 to go.

Karge ended the game with 19 points on 7 of 13 shooting from the floor, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range. She also contributed four rebounds and three assists.

Taylor Paulsrud had 10 points for the Falcons while Hannah Pignato, Kate Theisen and Mikaela Wilson chipped in six apiece. Katie Messman amassed five points, five rebounds to go along with a game-high seven assists and two steals for UW-River Falls.

The contest was a rematch of the 2016 WIAC Championship final, where the Titans claimed their third consecutive league tournament title with a 65-64 decision in River Falls.

UW-Oshkosh returns home to play UW-La Crosse on Wednesday (Jan. 25) in Kolf Sports Center.