Titans Smother Vikings With Strong Defensive Effort
The nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team produced yet another stifling defensive effort on the way to defeating Lawrence University, 66-27, Tuesday (Dec. 21) in Appleton.
UW-Oshkosh (9-2), ranked 23rd in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, held its eighth opponent to under 50 points this season, limiting Lawrence University to just 17.6% (9-51) shooting from the field and outrebounding the Vikings, 44-23.
The Titans, who recorded 20 assists, went 24 of 47 (.511) from the floor, featured 13 scorers and improved to 4-0 in the all-time series with Lawrence University (5-7), which was held to nine points or fewer in each quarter. The Vikings made one field goal in both the first and fourth periods.
Leah Porath paced the UW-Oshkosh with 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field, including 2-for-2 from 3-point range, to go along with five rebounds in 17 minutes of action. Porath, a 2021 D3hoops.com First Team All-American, has now scored in double digits 52 times over the Titans' past 56 games.
Jenna Jorgensen added 10 points for UW-Oshkosh, shooting 4-for-5 from the field and knocking down a pair of 3-pointers en route to scoring in double figures for the second straight game.
Rounding out the UW-Oshkosh scorers were Kayce Vaile with seven points; Kennedy Osterman with six; Brooke Freitag, Abby Kaiser and Julia Silloway with five each; Allison Forney with four; Nikki Arneson, Julia Magnuson and Mackenzie Tlachac with two each; and Ava Douglas and Jaden Kolinski with one apiece.
Arneson recorded a game high eight rebounds and five assists as no Titan played more than 22 minutes. Arneson attempted just one field goal the entire game after heading into the contest ranked third in the country with a .500 3-point percentage.
UW-Oshkosh, which allowed less than 30 points for the sixth time over the past six seasons, went into the night ranked second nationally with 10.4 turnovers per game, fourth with a 1.31 assist-to-turnover ratio and fifth by allowing 47.3 points per contest.
Lawrence University went 2-for-17 (.118) from 3-point range and 7-for-10 (.700) at the free throw line. The Vikings, who entered the contest ranked ninth in the nation with 165 free throw attempts, were held to their worst field goal percentage and fewest points since shooting 7-for-46 (.152) from the floor during a 66-21 setback against St. Norbert College on Dec. 6, 2017.
Mallory Meyer led the Vikings with eight points while Kenya Earl chipped in seven points and a team high five rebounds.
UW-Oshkosh scored the first 11 points of the game and went on to own leads of 21-5 after one quarter, 38-13 at intermission and 56-22 entering the final period. Porath and Kaiser accounted for each of the Titans' 11 points to open the game as Porath had eight points at the 5:33 mark of the first quarter.
The Titans held a cushion of at least 11 points for the final 33:07 of the game and maintained a lead of 21 points or more after Jorgensen drained a 3-pointer to extend UW-Oshkosh's advantage to 31-10 at the 5:30 mark of the second period. UW-Oshkosh owned its largest lead of 41 points at 65-24 following an Osterman 3-pointer with 6:34 left in the game.
UW-Oshkosh returns to the court Dec. 29 against University of Dubuque (Iowa) at the St. Olaf College Country Inn & Suites Holiday Classic in Northfield, Minn.