Leah Porath recorded her first career double-double with career highs of 26 points and 12 rebounds.
Leah Porath recorded her first career double-double with career highs of 26 points and 12 rebounds.

Duhawks Defeat Titans In Overtime

UW-Oshkosh's Leah Porath tied the game on a layup with seven seconds remaining in regulation, but the Loras College women's basketball team pulled out an 88-83 overtime win during the championship game of its own Tip-Off Classic on Saturday (Nov. 16) in Dubuque, Iowa.

Loras College (3-0) reclaimed the lead for good over the nationally ranked Titans at 80-79 following a 3-pointer from Kari Fitzpatrick with 3:09 left in overtime. UW-Oshkosh faced an 85-80 deficit with under a minute remaining in the extra session until Olivia Campbell drove for a layup that brought the Titans within 85-82 with 44 seconds left.

UW-Oshkosh (2-1) then missed a pair of free throws with 17 seconds to play, and Loras College extended its lead to 86-82 following a free throw by Madison Haslow. The Titans misfired on a shot in the lane with eight ticks remaining, but UW-Oshkosh's Abby Kaiser split two free throws to cut the Duhawks' lead to 86-83 with three seconds to play. Loras College then successfully inbounded the ball and secured the win with two Fitzpatrick free throws.

The Titans, ranked 17th in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, forced overtime with a 14-5 run that included 12 points by Porath over the final 5:30 of the fourth quarter.

Courtney Schnoor paced four Loras College double-digit scorers with 23 points. Macenzie Kraemer added 22 points for the Duhawks, who also received 19 points from Fitzpatrick and 11 from Marissa Schroeder. Schroeder led the Duhawks with eight rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks.

Porath finished the game with a career-high 26 points and 12 rebounds on the way to being named to the Tip-Off Classic All-Tournament Team. Her first career double-double featured 10 of 16 shooting from the field, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range. Porath, averaging 23.3 points per game this season, established her previous career high of 22 points Friday (Nov. 15) in Dubuque against Augustana College.

UW-Oshkosh's Campbell went 7-for-12 from the floor and 3-for-3 from beyond the 3-point arc en route to recording a career-high 19 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Campbell, who tied her career bests in both rebounds and assists, had a prior career high of 15 points.

Nikki Arneson and Karsyn Rueth chipped in nine points apiece for the Titans, who had won their previous seven meetings with Loras College, including an 83-75 victory in last year's season opener in Oshkosh.

Loras College concluded the game shooting 46.8 percent (29-62) from the field, 35.7 percent (10-28) from 3-point range and 83.3 percent (20-24) at the free throw line. The Duhawks owned a 36-28 rebounding advantage while UW-Oshkosh had edges of 16-14 in assists, 13-15 in turnovers and 9-7 in steals.

UW-Oshkosh ended the game shooting 45.9 percent (28-61) from the floor, 44.8 percent (13-29) from beyond the 3-point arc and 60.9 percent (14-23) at the foul line. The Titans 13 3-pointers matches their most since knocking down 14 against Northland International University on Nov. 18, 2013.

The Loras College Tip-Off Classic title game featured 11 ties and 20 lead changes.

Loras College raced out to a 9-2 lead before UW-Oshkosh responded with 10 unanswered points for a 12-9 advantage following an Emily Miller layup midway through the first quarter. A Miller jumper extended the Titans' lead to 19-12 as UW-Oshkosh entered the second period with a 19-15 advantage.

Trailing 25-17 after back-to-back 3-pointers by Porath and Campbell, the Duhawks scored 10 of the next 12 points to knot the score at 27 before heading into intermission with a 44-39 lead on Fitzpatrick's 3-pointer as time expired in second quarter.

Loras College took a 55-54 lead into the final period and built the largest advantage by either team at 70-61 until Porath led the Titans' fourth-quarter surge. UW-Oshkosh held its final lead of the game at 79-77 after a Rueth 3-pointer with 4:05 to go in overtime.

UW-Oshkosh and Loras College both participated in the 2019 NCAA Oshkosh Regional. The Titans won their own regional last season to reach the third round of the Division III postseason for the eighth time in program history. Loras College was eliminated in the first round of last year's national tournament.

The Titans travel to Milwaukee next weekend for a pair of games at Wisconsin Lutheran College's Paul Knueppel Classic. UW-Oshkosh opens the tournament against 10th-ranked DePauw University (Ind.) on Friday (Nov. 22) in a rematch of the 2019 Oshkosh Regional championship game that the Titans won, 54-52, on a basket with less than two seconds remaining.