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Julia Silloway scored five points with four rebounds and four assists against the Warhawks.
Julia Silloway scored five points with four rebounds and four assists against the Warhawks.

Warhawks Win Nationally Ranked Battle With Titans In Overtime

Box Score

UW-Whitewater made crucial 3-pointers near the end of both regulation and overtime to slip past UW-Oshkosh, 67-63, in a battle of nationally ranked Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference women's basketball teams Wednesday (Jan. 5) in Whitewater.

UW-Oshkosh (11-3, 1-2 WIAC), ranked 18th in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, turned a 47-41 deficit midway through the fourth quarter into a 53-52 lead following three Nikki Arneson free throws with 51 seconds remaining in regulation. After eighth-ranked UW-Whitewater committed a turnover on the ensuing possession, Brooke Freitag made a pair of free throws to extend the Titans advantage to 55-52 with nine seconds left in the fourth quarter.

UW-Whitewater's Aleah Grundahl then connected on a 3-pointer to tie the score at 55 with five seconds left in the fourth period, and Warhawk Veronica Kieres blocked UW-Oshkosh's attempt at the game-winning basket as time expired in regulation.

Freitag hit a 3-pointer to provide the Titans a 58-55 lead at the 3:42 mark of overtime before UW-Oshkosh's Leah Porath drilled a 3-pointer of her own 38 seconds later to up the advantage to 61-57.

Yssa Sto. Domingo drained a 3-pointer for the Warhawks to tie the score at 61 with 1:12 to play. Porath then answered with a jumper for a 63-61 UW-Oshkosh lead, but Sto. Domingo once again connected from beyond the arc to put UW-Whitewater back on top at 64-63 with 38 seconds left. Sto. Domingo's long-range jumpers in overtime marked her only two made field goals of the night.

The Titans misfired on a 3-pointer on the following possession, and Sto. Domingo split a pair of free throws for a 65-63 UW-Whitewater lead with 17 ticks left. UW-Whitewater's Johanna Taylor blocked UW-Oshkosh's attempt at a tying jumper with seven seconds to go, and Maggie Trausch converted two free throws for the Warhawks to provide the final score.

UW-Whitewater (12-1, 3-0 WIAC), which snapped UW-Oshkosh's five-game winning streak, had lost each of its past four meetings with the defending WIAC champion Titans. UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater have combined to win the past eight WIAC tournament titles and the last five regular season league championships. Since the 2013-14 campaign, the Titans have claimed WIAC postseason titles in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2020 in addition to regular season championships in 2017, 2019 and 2021.

Freitag and Jenna Jorgensen led UW-Oshkosh with 15 points apiece while Arneson and Porath both added 13. Freitag, who registered five rebounds and three steals, established a new career scoring high, eclipsing her previous best of 13 points. Jorgensen set a new season scoring best, knocking down three 3-pointers and finishing three points shy of match her career best of 18 points.

Porath, a 2021 D3hoops.com First Team All-American and two-time WIAC Player of the Year, has now scored at least eight points in 60 consecutive games, including 54 double-figure scoring performances. Porath also collected a team-leading seven rebounds while Julia Silloway dished out a team-best four assists for the Titans.

UW-Whitewater featured four double-digit scorers of its own as Grundahl and Kacie Carollo both had 14 points, Rebekah Schumacher added 12 and Taylor chipped in 11 to go along with a team-high nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

Sto. Domingo finished with nine points off the Warhawks bench.

UW-Whitewater went 23 of 67 (.343) from the field, 11 of 28 (.393) from 3-point range and 10 of 14 (.714) at the free throw line. The Warhawks, the highest scoring WIAC team at 75.6 points per game before Wednesday, held advantages of 46-35 in rebounds, 19-9 in offensive boards and18-10 in assists after entering the night ranked seventh nationally with 16.9 steals per game and a +12.33 average turnover margin, and ninth with 28.25 turnovers forced per contest. Both teams had 14 turnovers and four blocks.

UW-Oshkosh shot 38.3% (23-60) from the floor, 33.3% (9-27) from beyond the 3-point arc and 80% (8-10) at the foul line. The Titans, who had a 7-6 edge in steals, headed into the matchup with the best scoring defense among all 1,303 NCAA and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics women's basketball programs at 44.3 points allowed per contest. UW-Oshkosh, which has held 10 opponents under 50 points this season, also ranked first in Division III with 10.8 turnovers per game and fourth with a 1.30 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Wednesday's battle included nine ties as UW-Whitewater owned leads of 15-11 after one quarter, 28-22 at halftime and 41-34 entering the fourth period. The Warhawks, who led by as many as 12 points at 41-29 with 2:12 left in the third quarter, claimed an 11-9 edge with 1:47 to play in the opening period and did not trail again until Arneson's three free throws gave UW-Oshkosh their 53-52 lead with 51 seconds remaining in regulation.

UW-Oshkosh returns home to host UW-River Falls on Saturday (Jan. 8) in Kolf Sports Center.

Photo by Dane Sheehan, UW-Whitewater Athletics