Titans Capture Third Straight WIAC Tournament Title, Sixth In Last Eight Years
The UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team took control with a dominant third quarter and rolled to a third consecutive Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament title, downing UW-Whitewater, 74-58, in the championship game Friday (March 5) in Kolf Sports Center.
UW-Oshkosh (9-2) did not trail after the 6:45 mark of the first quarter and reclaimed the lead for good at 25-22 on a Jenna Jorgensen 3-pointer with 3:25 left in the second period. The Titans, who owned leads of 17-14 after the first period and 30-26 at intermission, shot 9-for-11 from the field during the third quarter, including 5-for-6 from 3-point range, on the way to owning a cushion of at least 10 points for the final 14:29 of the contest.
The Titans earned their third consecutive WIAC Championship (presented by Culver's) title and sixth in the past eight seasons. UW-Oshkosh, which was making its unprecedented eighth straight finals appearance and 14th overall, also tied the conference record with seven league postseason championships since the event debuted in 1999. The 2021 WIAC tournament champion was awarded the league's regular season title, extending the Titans' record total to 14 since the conference was formed in 1972.
UW-Oshkosh, the WIAC East Division top seed, won all three meetings this season with East Division second seed UW-Whitewater (8-3). The Titans swept the regular season series with the Warhawks, winning by scores of 73-68 in overtime Feb. 10 and 69-51 Feb. 12. Friday's season-ending conference championship game marked the fourth time in the past five years that the Titans and Warhawks met in the title game.
Leah Porath, the 2020 WIAC Player of the Year and NCAA Division III All-American, surpassed 1,000 career points Friday and paced four Titan double-digit scorers with 17 points to go along with a team-high seven rebounds and five assists. Porath, who finished the three-game WIAC Championship with 82 points, 33 rebounds and 13 assists, became the program's 22nd 1,000-point scorer early in the third quarter.
Porath now has 1,010 points during her four seasons as a Titan and ended the year leading the WIAC in scoring at 18.7 points per game.
Jorgensen had 15 points in a reserve role for the Titans, who also received 14 points and five assists from Julia Silloway, and 11 points, five rebounds and four assists from Nikki Arneson. Jorgensen, who shot 6-for-10 from the floor Friday, finished the season with a WIAC-best .535 field goal percentage. Silloway did not commit a turnover in a team-high 38 minutes and concluded the year with a conference-leading 4.38 assist-to-turnover ratio.
UW-Oshkosh's Karsyn Rueth chipped in seven points and five rebounds during her final collegiate game while Abby Kaiser and Kennedy Osterman added five points apiece. Osterman tied for the team lead with a season-high five assists.
The Titans went 27 of 49 (55.1 percent) from the field, 10 of 22 (45.5 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc and 10 of 17 (58.8 percent) at the free throw line. The Titans, who knocked down at least 10 3-pointers for the fourth time this year, owned advantages of 22-16 in assists, 6-3 in steals and 5-3 in blocks. UW-Oshkosh's 22 assists were a season high.
UW-Whitewater shot 34.4 percent (22-64) from the floor, 16.7 percent (3-18) from 3-point range and 84.6 percent (11-13) at the foul line. The Warhawks had edges of 34-33 in rebounds and 13-15 in turnovers.
The Warhawks' Johanna Taylor led all players with 23 points and three blocks to go along with eight rebounds.
Aleah Grundahl added 12 points and game highs of nine rebounds and eight assists for UW-Whitewater.
UW-Whitewater scored the first four points of the game and owned a 7-3 advantage until UW-Oshkosh responded with eight unanswered points, including five by Kaiser, for an 11-7 edge. The Titans never trailed after Silloway drained a 3-pointer that provided a 9-7 lead.
The Warhawks knotted score at 11 with under five minutes left in the first quarter and twice more at 20 and 22 during the second period, but the Titans never looked back after Jorgensen's 3-pointer in the latter stages of the opening half.
Porath scored her 1,001st career point on a jumper that upped the UW-Oshkosh lead to 39-28 with 6:55 to go in the third quarter. Rueth later buried a 3-pointer for a 42-30 advantage at the 4:29 mark of the third period, and the Titans led by double digits the rest of the way.
UW-Oshkosh went on to lead by as many as 22 points on four occasions as Jorgensen's 3-pointer extended the cushion to 55-33 late in the third quarter, a Silloway layup made the score 57-35 early in the fourth period, a pair of Porath free throws upped the lead to 59-37 and a Porath layup increased the advantage to 61-39 with 5:15 to play.
UW-Oshkosh won previous WIAC Championship titles in 1999, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020. UW-Stevens Point has also won a conference-leading seven postseason championships in the 23-year history of the event. The Titans won prior regular season league championships in 1985, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2017 and 2019.
The Titans and Warhawks, who secured their two WIAC Championship titles in 2017 and 2018, have combined to win each of the past eight league tournament championships.
UW-Oshkosh won the 2019 title with a 69-40 victory over UW-Whitewater since the Warhawks clinched the 2017 and 2018 WIAC Championships against the Titans by scores of 65-56 and 68-65, respectively. The Titans also ousted UW-Whitewater from the 2020 league postseason semifinals by an 81-65 score en route to reaching the third round of the Division III Championship before the remainder of the national tournament was canceled last March due to the novel coronavirus.
The Titans capped the 2021 campaign leading the WIAC in scoring defense (58.0), average scoring margin (+12.7), field goal percentage (.455), assists per game (13.7) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.09).
2021 WIAC Women's Basketball Championship Website • 2021 WIAC Men's & Women's Basketball Championship Program
Postgame Interview (Ricky Nelson) With UW-Oshkosh Head Women's Basketball Coach Brad Fischer
Appleton Post Crescent/Oshkosh Northwestern Recap by Jordan Jacobson
Photo by Steve Frommell, UW-Oshkosh Athletics