Titans Close Out Regular Season With Win Over Blue Devils
UW-Oshkosh opened a large first-half lead behind a balanced scoring attack and a stifling defensive effort and cruised to a 71-53 win over UW-Stout in its final women's basketball game of the regular season on Saturday (Feb. 18) in Kolf Sports Center.
The Titans never trailed en route to building leads of 22-5 after the first quarter and 40-17 at halftime. UW-Oshkosh won for the ninth time in its last 10 meetings with UW-Stout, including a 64-58 victory on Jan. 7 in Menomonie.
UW-Oshkosh (23-2, 13-1 WIAC), which clinched its record 12th league title on Wednesday (Feb. 15), will be the top seed for next week's six-team WIAC Championship. The Titans receive a bye in the tournament's first round and will host a semifinal contest on Friday (Feb. 24) against the lowest remaining seed while second-seeded UW-Whitewater (20-5, 10-4 WIAC) hosts the highest remaining seed.
Semifinal winners will meet on Sunday (Feb. 26) for the WIAC's automatic berth into the 64-team NCAA Division III Championship.
The WIAC Championship begins Wednesday (Feb. 22) with third-seeded UW-Stevens Point (17-8, 9-5 WIAC) hosting sixth-seeded UW-River Falls (8-17, 3-11) and fourth-seeded UW-La Crosse (15-10, 9-5) entertaining fifth-seeded UW-Eau Claire (13-12, 7-7).
UW-Stout (7-18, 3-11 WIAC) shared sixth place with UW-River Falls in the league standings, but lost a tiebreaker to the Falcons for the conference tournament's final entry.
In Saturday's triumph over UW-Stout, Eliza Campbell paced 12 UW-Oshkosh scorers with a game-high 13 points as the Titans improved their home record to 10-0 on the season. Campbell, who led UW-Oshkosh in scoring for the 10th time this season, made 6 of 10 shots from the field and added four rebounds.
UW-Oshkosh reserves accounted for 37 points, including 12 from Kylie Moe, nine from Madeline Staples and eight from Isabella Samuels. Moe made all four of her 3-point attempts while Staples and Samuels both shot 4-for-6 from the floor.
UW-Oshkosh starters Taylor Schmidt and Alex Richard contributed nine and seven points, respectively, while Morgan Kokta chipped in two points to go along with a team-leading seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.
All 16 Titans received playing time as UW-Oshkosh held advantages in field goal percentage (.453 to .343), rebounds (42-36), assists (15-9) and steals (8-5) on the way to limiting its 19th opponent to fewer than 56 points this season. The Blue Devils made just three of their 17 attempts (17.6 percent) from 3-point range while the Titans knocked down 7 of 20 (35 percent).
Campbell drove for a layup just 12 seconds into the game, and UW-Oshkosh led by at least 10 points for the final 34 minutes of the contest.
UW-Oshkosh scored 15 unanswered points, including eight in a row by Samuels, to extend its lead to 24-5 with 9:16 remaining in the second quarter. UW-Stout missed 17 consecutive shots from the field and committed three turnovers during the Titans' decisive 15-point skein that lasted nearly 10 minutes.
A layup by Kyncaide Diedrich cut the UW-Stout deficit to 24-7 and snapped the Blue Devils' scoreless drought that spanned from the 6:31 mark of the first period until 7:01 remained in the second quarter.
UW-Oshkosh, ranked 11th in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, led by as many as 26 points in the first half, extending its advantage to 37-11 on a free throw from Taylor Dagon with 2:31 to play in the second period.
UW-Stout scored the first 10 points of the second half to close within 42-27, but Moe hit a pair of 3-pointers to increase the Titan lead to 48-27. UW-Oshkosh built its largest lead of 28 points at 65-40 following back-to-back layups by Campbell with seven minutes remaining.
Bailey Diersen and Jenna Goldsmith led UW-Stout with 12 points apiece. Goldsmith, who closed her collegiate career with 1,001 points, also had a game-high nine rebounds and five blocks.
Diedrich and Anna Brown registered eight points apiece for the Blue Devils while Diedrich added seven rebounds and a game-best six assists.