Titans Rout Falcons On Senior Night
Five Titans scored in double figures as the UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team routed UW-River Falls, 79-42, in a nonconference contest Saturday (Jan. 29) in Kolf Sports Center.
UW-Oshkosh (14-4), which earned its 14th consecutive home victory and held its 11th opponent to under 50 points this season, scored the first seven points of the game and never trailed en route to building leads of 19-10 after one quarter, 44-30 at halftime and 59-36 entering the final period. The Titans, who have won 13 of their last 14 meetings with the Falcons, avenged a 73-64 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback at UW-River Falls last Saturday (Jan. 22).
UW-River Falls (9-9) faced a double-digit deficit for the final 28 minutes of the game during the first nonconference matchup in the all-time series. The Falcons and Titans had their first WIAC regular season contest – originally scheduled for Jan. 8 in Oshkosh – canceled due to COVID-19 protocols.
UW-Oshkosh produced one of its most efficient performances of the season Saturday, shooting better than 52% from the field, hitting 12 3-pointers, committing a season-low five turnovers while dishing out 17 assists, and outrebounding the Falcons by 13.
Jenna Jorgensen paced the Titans with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the floor in 23 minutes off the bench. Jorgensen, who led UW-Oshkosh in scoring for the second time this year, has now scored in double digits during seven of the Titans' last nine games.
Nikki Arneson, who drained three 3-pointers, added 11 points and 10 rebounds for UW-Oshkosh, which also received 11 points and four assists from Kennedy Osterman, 11 points by Leah Porath, six points from Claire Staples, five points by Ava Douglas and a season-best six assists from Brooke Freitag. The double-double was the third of Arneson's career.
Porath moved up two spots and into seventh on the UW-Oshkosh all-time scoring list with 1,264 career points, passing Shelley Dietz (1,257 points) and Maurya McClintock (1,260). Porath, a 2021 D3hoops.com First Team All-American and two-time reigning WIAC Player of the Year, has scored at least eight points in each of the Titans' last 64 games, including 58 double-figure efforts.
UW-Oshkosh finished the game shooting 52.7% (29-55) from the floor, 44.4% (12-27) from 3-point range and 81.8% (9-11) at the free throw line. The Titans owned commanding advantages of 35-22 in rebounds and 17-5 in assists in addition to a 3-2 edge in steals. Both teams had four blocks.
The Titans, who had their fewest turnover count since also committing five at UW-River Falls on Jan. 18, 2020, went into the game leading the NCAA Division III at 11.3 turnovers per contest while ranking ninth by allowing just 48.5 points per game. UW-Oshkosh committed a mere two turnovers during the final 33 minutes Saturday.
UW-River Falls went 16 of 45 (.356) from the field, 5-for-20 (.250) from beyond the 3-point arc and 5-for-9 (.556) at the foul line on the way to suffering its largest loss since falling, 92-45, during season opener at Bethel University (Minn.).
Jenna Zeman led the Falcons with 14 points.
Arneson drilled a 3-pointer to open the scoring just 17 seconds into the contest. Porath and Kaiser followed with layups to extend the UW-Oshkosh lead to 7-0 before Arneson knocked down another 3-pointer and Kaiser scored again in the paint as the Titans started the game 5-for-5 from the field and led, 12-3, at the 6:55 mark of the first quarter. UW-River Falls never pulled closer than four points for the remainder of the contest after Porath's layup with 8:58 left in the opening period.
Osterman completed a three-point play to increase UW-Oshkosh's lead to 22-12 early in the second period. Osterman proceeded to hit a 3-pointer 37 seconds later for a 25-15 advantage at the 8:00 mark of the quarter, and UW-Oshkosh led by at least 10 points the rest of the way.
The Titans then held the Falcons scoreless for a stretch of more than six minutes during the third quarter as part of a nine-point run that upped their lead to 55-32 following back-to-back layups from Arneson and Jorgensen. UW-Oshkosh owned its largest cushion of 37 points on two occasions during the fourth quarter, taking a 77-40 advantage on a Kayce Vaile 3-pointer before a pair of Douglas free throws capped the scoring with 55 seconds to play.
UW-Oshkosh returns to WIAC play at UW-Platteville on Wednesday (Feb. 2).