Blue Devils Defeat Titans In Double Overtime
The UW-Stout women's basketball team overcame deficits of eight points with under six minutes left in regulation and eight points with 38 seconds to play in the first overtime on the way to defeating UW-Oshkosh, 77-71 in double overtime, Saturday (Jan. 11) in Kolf Sports Center.
UW-Stout (11-3, 2-1 WIAC) scored the final eight points of the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime as Lindsey Johnson banked in a 3-pointer from the right corner to tie the score at 52 with 14 seconds remaining in regulation. UW-Oshkosh had a chance to win in regulation via an inbounds play underneath its own basket with less than three seconds left. However, Titan inbounder Olivia Campbell, who bounced the ball off a Blue Devil's back, came up short on a potential game-winning layup.
UW-Oshkosh (8-6, 1-2 WIAC) accounted for each of the first nine points of the first overtime behind 3-pointers from Karsyn Rueth and Leah Porath, and a three-point play by Porath that upped the Titans' advantage to 61-52 with 2:32 remaining in the session. A Nikki Arneson layup extended UW-Oshkosh's lead to 63-55 with under a minute to go in overtime, but UW-Stout forced a turnover on the following Titan possession and got a layup from Kati Christopherson to pull within 63-57 with 32 ticks to go in the first overtime.
The Titans committed another turnover on the ensuing inbounds play, but UW-Stout committed a turnover of its own two seconds later. UW-Oshkosh's Brooke Freitag missed a pair of free throws with 26 seconds to go in the first overtime, and Liz Oswald buried a 3-pointer on the other end to cut the Blue Devils' Deficit to 63-60 with 22 seconds remaining. Porath then missed two free throws for the Titans, and Johnson hit the game-tying 3-pointer with 14 seconds to go.
UW-Oshkosh had another chance to win during the first overtime, but Campbell missed a pair of free throws with four seconds on the clock before Christopherson's heave from 3-point range was off the mark for UW-Stout as time expired.
UW-Stout proceeded to score the first five points in double overtime on a layup by Lizzy Olsem and an Oswald 3-pointer. The Blue Devils never relinquished the lead during the second overtime, building seven-point advantages on three occasions in the final 97 seconds.
The Blue Devils, who snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Titans, had lost 14 of the last 15 meetings in the series.
UW-Oshkosh shot a season-low 33.3 percent (23-69) from the field, 25.7 percent (9-35) from 3-point range and 53.3 percent (16-30) at the foul line. The Titans, who went 6-for-17 (.353) at the free throw line after halftime, owned advantages of 16-15 in assists, 18-24 in turnovers and 4-0 in blocks. UW-Oshkosh entered Saturday leading the entire NCAA Division III with 11.1 turnovers per game while listing ninth nationally with a 1.17 assist-to-turnover ratio.
UW-Oshkosh's Porath led all players with a career-high 30 points on 11 of 26 shooting from the field and nine rebounds en route to becoming the first Titan 30-point scorer since Amanda Dickerson went for 31 at UW-Superior on Jan. 6, 2001. Porath, who has scored in double digits each of the Titans' last 18 games dating back to last year, eclipsed her previous career high of 29 points established earlier this season. She went into Saturday leading the conference with 19.0 points per game and a .536 field goal percentage.
Arneson added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Titans, who also received seven points from Freitag, six from Campbell and five apiece from reserves Rueth and Katie Ludwig. Campbell led UW-Oshkosh with five assists, four blocks and four steals.
Oswald paced five UW-Stout double-digit scorers with 16 points while grabbing a team-leading nine rebounds.
Christopherson finished with 15 points, five rebounds, a game-best seven assists and three steals off the Blue Devil bench, which accounted for 33 points, 20 rebounds, eight assists and six steals.
UW-Stout went 27 of 69 (.391) from the floor, 8-for-27 (.296) from beyond the arc and 15 of 23 (.652) at the free throw line. The Blue Devils held a 57-37 rebounding advantage, including 20-14 on the offensive end, after heading into the weekend with a WIAC-leading 71.8 points and 42.5 rebounds per game to go along with a .721 free throw percentage and +10.3 average rebounding margin.
UW-Oshkosh held a 16-15 lead entering the second quarter but trailed, 30-25, at halftime after shooting 1-for-12 (.083) from the field during the second period. Arneson and Porath combined to score all of UW-Oshkosh's 16 points in the third quarter as the Titans went into the fourth period with a 41-40 lead and did not trail again until the 4:26 mark of the second overtime.
The Titans later went on an 8-0 run for a 52-44 lead with 5:57 left in the fourth quarter. However, UW-Stout held UW-Oshkosh scoreless for the remainder of regulation as the Titans missed their last eight shots from the floor during the fourth period.
UW-Oshkosh will host UW-Eau Claire on Wednesday (Jan. 15) in Kolf Sports Center.