Titans Score Last Nine Points To Finish Off Falcons

Katelyn Kuehl and Taylor Schmidt combined to score the last nine points of the game to lift the UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team to a 59-51 win at UW-River Falls on Wednesday (Jan. 7).

Trailing 51-50 with 2:20 remaining, UW-Oshkosh (12-1, 4-0 WIAC) reclaimed the lead for good 15 seconds later on two free throws by Kuehl. Ashley Neustifter registered steals on the next two UW-River Falls possessions before Kuehl found Schmidt for a 3-pointer that put UW-Oshkosh ahead by four with 46 seconds to play.

Schmidt returned the favor and assisted on a Kuehl layup with 18 seconds left. Schmidt capped the Titans' fifth straight win over UW-River Falls with two free throws following a steal with three seconds remaining.

Kuehl led all players with 15 points. Alex Richard scored 10 of her 11 points in the first half for the Titans. Eliza Campbell contributed 10 points off the bench. Schmidt tallied nine points, while Marissa Selner recorded a game-high 11 rebounds.

UW-Oshkosh shot 38.5 percent (20-52) from the field, including 42.9 percent (3-7) on 3-point attempts. The Titans made 16 of 25 free throws (64 percent) and created a season-high 24 turnovers. The team's 14 steals tied a season best.

The Titans, who entered the contest ranked 11th in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, jumped out to a 4-0 lead and increased their advantage to 10-4 on a layup by Richard.

A 3-pointer by Alicia Tollefson pushed the UW-Oshkosh lead to 16-8 less than seven minutes in, but UW-River Falls responded with 10 unanswered points to pull ahead, 18-16, midway through the opening period.

A Kuehl free throw gave the Titans a 28-23 advantage with under five minutes to go in the half, but a six-point run by the Falcons culminated in a 29-28 edge with 36 second remaining. A jumper by Campbell with five seconds left provided UW-Oshkosh with a 30-29 lead at halftime.

A 3-point basket by Kuehl and a layup by Selner opened the second-half scoring and gave the Titans a 35-29 lead with 16:54 to go, but a seven-point run by UW-River Falls swung the advantage back to the Falcons.

UW-Oshkosh surged back ahead by tallying the next seven points. UW-River Falls committed seven turnovers and missed its only two shots during the Titans' run that lasted nearly five minutes. Kate Theisen's layup ended the Falcon drought and pulled UW-River Falls to within 42-38 at the 9:49 mark.

A free throw by Campbell increased UW-Oshkosh's lead to 50-44 with four minutes left, but Katie Messman's 3-pointer capped a seven-point UW-River Falls run for a 51-50 lead with 2:20 remaining.

Taylor Karge had 13 points and seven rebounds for UW-River Falls (4-9, 0-5 WIAC), which shot 42 percent (21-50) from the floor, 31.3 percent (5-16) on 3-pointers and 57.1 percent (4-7) from the free throw line. The Falcons' seven free throw attempts tied a season low.

UW-Oshkosh puts its seven-game winning streak on the line at UW-Stevens Point on Saturday (Jan. 10).