Warhawks Gain Control Late During WIAC Tournament Win Over Titans
League regular season champion and nationally ranked UW-Whitewater regained control with six consecutive points late in the fourth quarter on the way to defeating UW-Oshkosh, 67-59, during the semifinal round of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament (presented by Culver's) on Wednesday (Feb. 23) in Whitewater.
Top-seeded UW-Whitewater (23-3), ranked 11th in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, reclaimed the lead for good at 58-55 on a Rebekah Schumacher 3-pointer with 2:15 left in the game. After fourth-seeded UW-Oshkosh missed from 3-point range on the ensuing possession, Aleah Grundahl then completed a three-point play that provided the Warhawks a 61-55 advantage.
UW-Oshkosh, which had scored nine points in a row to knot the score at 55, cut its deficit to 61-57 following a Leah Porath layup. However, Grundahl answered with a layup of her own 17 seconds later to extend the Warhawks cushion back to 63-57 with 51 ticks remaining. The Titans then missed a pair of field goal attempts and committed a turnover on their next three trips down the court as UW-Whitewater earned its 14th straight home win.
During a contest that featured four ties and six lead changes in the second half, UW-Oshkosh held a 15-14 edge after one quarter before UW-Whitewater had advantages of 32-29 at intermission and 49-46 entering the final period.
UW-Oshkosh (19-6) will learn Monday (Feb. 28) whether it receives one of 20 at-large berths into the Division III Championship that begins March 4. The Titans, who have won each of the past three and six of the previous eight WIAC Tournaments, fell one game short of reaching their ninth consecutive league championship game.
UW-Whitewater advances to host third-seeded UW-Eau Claire (20-7) for the WIAC Tournament championship game Friday (Feb. 25). UW-Eau Claire won its semifinal, 87-68, at second-seeded UW-Stout (13-11) on Wednesday. The winner of Friday's final earns the WIAC's automatic berth into the 64-team Division III Championship field.
Porath paced the Titans with 18 points while Ava Douglas and Nikki Arneson added 11 apiece and Julia Silloway had nine. Arneson notched a game-high three steals. Silloway led all players with five assists. Porath, a 2021 consensus First Team All-American and the two-time reigning WIAC Player of the Year scored at least eight points in 69 consecutive games played, which have featured 63 double-figure scoring performances.
UW-Oshkosh shot 35% (21-60) from the field, 36.4% (8-22) from 3-point range and 75% (9-12) at the free throw line. The Titans had an 8-6 edge in steals.
UW-Whitewater went 25 of 67 (.373) from the floor, 5-for-16 (.313) from beyond the 3-point arc and 12 of 16 (.750) at the foul line while owning advantages of 45-40 in rebounds, 13-11 in assists, 9-13 in turnovers and 5-1 in blocks.
UW-Oshkosh went into the night ranked first in the nation with 10.8 turnovers per game and ranked 12th with a WIAC-leading scoring defense at 49.6 points per contest.
UW-Whitewater, which won two of its three matchups with the Titans this season, was the conference leader in scoring (72.7) and rebounding (40.9) while ranking seventh nationally with a +9.0 average turnover margin and 11th at 13.8 steals per contest.
Grundahl finished with a game-best 19 points for the Warhawks, who also received 12 points apiece from Schumacher and Johanna Taylor, and 11 from Kacie Carollo. Grundahl, the WIAC leader with a .511 field goal percentage and 62 steals heading into the game, shot 7-for-16 from the field while recording seven rebounds, four assists and one steal. Taylor collected a game-best eight rebounds and three blocks.
The Warhawks raced out to an 8-0 lead Wednesday before UW-Oshkosh closed out the opening period with a 10-0 run for a 15-14 lead following a Porath 3-pointer with under a minute left.
UW-Whitewater responded with a 9-0 run of its own to begin the second period and maintained a lead from the 9:16 mark of the second quarter until Arneson drove for a layup that gave UW-Oshkosh a 34-32 edge with 8:11 to play in the third period. Arneson later drilled a 3-pointer to cap the Titans' 8-0 run, which also included a Kennedy Osterman 3-pointer, to start to the third quarter.
The teams exchanged the lead on five occasions during a stretch of 71 seconds late in the third quarter, and the Warhawks did not trail after Veronica Kieres hit a jumper for a 47-46 advantage with 1:38 left in the third.
UW-Whitewater upped its cushion to 55-46 with 6:30 to go in the game, but the Titans rattled off nine straight points, including seven in a row by Porath, over the next three-plus minutes to tie the score at 55 on a pair of Arneson free throws with 3:12 left. Arneson's first make at the charity stripe marked her 1,000th career point. Arneson becomes the 23rd player in program history to reach 1,000 points.
UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater, who have met in the league tournament final four of the last five years, have combined to win the past eight WIAC postseason titles. The Titans, who have won five of their past seven meetings with UW-Whitewater, are now 14-3 in WIAC Tournament semifinal contests. The Warhawks are seeking their third league tournament championship and first since winning back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018.
Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com