Titans Tip Off Basketball Season With Exhibition Games
The defending Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion and nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team begins the 2021-22 season with a pair of exhibition contests before opening the regular season at Finlandia University (Mich.) on Nov. 5.
UW-Oshkosh, which produced a 9-2 record last season, won the WIAC East Division during an abbreviated schedule that featured games against league opponents exclusively. The Titans then went on to clinch their third straight WIAC tournament title and six in the last eight years with a 74-58 home victory over UW-Whitewater. UW-Oshkosh was also awarded the WIAC regular season championship – its third in the last five seasons – by virtue of winning the league tournament title.
The 2021 NCAA Division III Championship was canceled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. UW-Oshkosh, which has compiled a 194-49 record and eight consecutive 20+ win seasons from 2013-20, has made six trips to the national postseason over the past seven tournaments, advancing to the third round in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2020, and to the second round in 2015 and 2016 under head coach Brad Fischer.
UW-Oshkosh, ranked 17th in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com in the preseason, gets the season underway with road exhibition contests at NCAA Division I member University of Wisconsin (5-19 record in 2021) on Oct. 31 in Madison and at nationally ranked NCAA Division II member Michigan Technological University (20-2) on Nov. 4 in Houghton, Mich.
Preview of UW-Oshkosh's exhibition games
UW-Oshkosh opens the regular season at Finlandia University on Nov. 5 in the second of back-to-back games in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Titans have won each of the five meetings with Finlandia University – a member of the Coast-To-Coast Conference that went 5-1 last season, including 3-0 at home.
The Titans then conduct their home opener Nov. 8 against Lakeland University in Kolf Sports Center. The matchup with Lakeland University (6-6 record in 2021) is the first of four regular season nonconference home games for UW-Oshkosh. The Titans also host Alma College (Mich.) on Nov. 19, St. Norbert College on Nov. 20 and Ripon College on Dec. 20.
Ripon College, the reigning Midwest Conference regular season champion, produced a 3-0 record last season while Alma College went 8-7 in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. St. Norbert College, which joins Lakeland University as a member of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference this year, did not play a game last season after going 9-16 as a member of the MWC in 2020.
Rounding out UW-Oshkosh's nonconference slate are games against University of Minnesota Morris on Nov. 12 and Bethany Lutheran College (Minn.) on Nov. 13 in St. Joseph, Minn.; at Edgewood College on Nov. 17; at Lawrence University on Dec. 21; and against University of Dubuque (Iowa) on Dec. 29 and Carthage College on Dec. 30 in Northfield, Minn.
Bethany Lutheran College (9-1 record in 2021) was a regular season tri-champion and the league postseason winner in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference last season. UW-Oshkosh's game against Bethany Lutheran College is a rematch of their meeting in the second round of the 2020 Division III Championship that the Titans won by a 67-60 score to reach the Sweet 16 before the novel coronavirus pandemic canceled the remainder of the tournament.
Edgewood College (11-5 record in 2021) lost to UW-Oshkosh, 61-40, during the first round of the 2020 national tournament, setting the stage for the matchup with Bethany Lutheran College. Last season Edgewood College shared the NACC North regular season title.
University of Minnesota Morris went 6-4 a year ago after falling in the UMAC tournament semifinals while University of Dubuque compiled a 6-7 record in the American Rivers Conference and, Carthage College was 4-10 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. Lawrence University did not play a game last season and went 6-19 during the 2020 campaign as a member of the MWC.
UW-Oshkosh starts WIAC play at UW-Eau Claire on Dec. 1 and hosts UW-La Crosse on Dec. 4. The Titans also host league rivals UW-River Falls on Jan. 8, UW-Stout on Jan. 15, UW-Platteville on Jan. 19, UW-Eau Claire on Jan. 26, UW-Stevens Point on Feb. 9 and 18th-ranked UW-Whitewater for the regular season finale Feb. 16.
Rounding out the Titans' conference schedule are road contests at UW-Whitewater on Jan. 5, UW-Stevens Point on Feb. 12, UW-River Falls on Jan. 22, UW-Platteville on Feb. 2, UW-Stout on Feb. 5 and UW-La Crosse on Feb. 12.
Last season the WIAC standings featured East and West divisions for the first time. UW-Oshkosh secured the East Division title with a 5-1 record. The Titans were followed in the East Division by second-place UW-Whitewater (8-3 record in 2021) at 4-2, third-place UW-Stevens Point (3-6) at 2-4 and fourth-place UW-Platteville (2-7) at 1-5.
In the West Division, UW-Eau Claire (8-2 record in 2021) finished first with a 6-0 record, UW-La Crosse (5-5) second at 3-3, UW-Stout (2-7) third at 2-4 and UW-River Falls (2-7) fourth at 1-5.
UW-Oshkosh began its march to a third straight WIAC Championship title with home wins of 79-59 over UW-River Falls and 67-59 over UW-La Crosse. The Titans have now earned a league record 14 WIAC regular season titles and a league record tying seven postseason crowns.
Fischer, who enters the season six victories shy of becoming the 11th WIAC coach to win 200 games and nine wins away from tying former UW-Oshkosh head coach Pam Ruder for 10th most in league history, brings back all five regular starters and all but one player who averaged more than two minutes per game last season.
Last year UW-Oshkosh paced the WIAC with 58 points allowed and 13.7 assists per game, a .455 field goal percentage and a +12.7 scoring margin.
Senior guard Leah Porath, a 2021 First Team All-American and two-time WIAC Player of the Year, headlines the returning Titans. Porath has led the WIAC in scoring the past two seasons en route to earning Player of the Year honors, averaging 17.5 points per game in 2020 and 18.7 a year ago. Porath also shot 53.4% from the field and 76.9% from the free throw line last season while averaging 6.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.0 steals per game.
UW-Oshkosh's returning starters from last season also include forward Nikki Arneson and guards Julia Silloway, Abby Kaiser and Kennedy Osterman.
Silloway earned All-WIAC First Team accolades in 2021 while Arneson garnered All-WIAC Honorable Mention recognition the past two years. Kaiser was tabbed to the All-WIAC Honorable Mention Team a year ago and Osterman was named a 2021 WIAC Co-Newcomer of the Year. Kaiser and Silloway were two of the five members on last season's WIAC All-Defensive Team.
Last season Arneson averaged 9.0 points and 3.6 rebounds per game; Silloway 7.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per contest; Kaiser 6.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists; and Osterman 6.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists. Silloway paced the WIAC with 35 total assists and a 4.38 assist-to-turnover ratio. Osterman collected a team-best 15 steals.
UW-Oshkosh welcomes back key reserves from last season in guards Jenna Jorgensen and Ava Douglas, who averaged at least 13 minutes per contest a year ago. Jorgensen finished second on the team in scoring last year at 10.1 points per contest and knocked down a team-leading 17 3-pointers on 40 attempts to finish fourth in the conference with a .425 3-point percentage.
UW-Oshkosh guards Brooke Freitag, who averaged 5.4 points per game in 2020, and Katie Ludwig also return after missing last season due to injury.
The Titans' 194 wins over the past nine seasons are the most of any current Division III school in the four-state Upper Midwest area that includes Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.