Titans Repeat As WIAC Tournament Champion, Earn 16th NCAA Postseason Berth
The UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team is returning to the NCAA Division III Championship for the sixth time in the last seven seasons.
Emily Miller led all players with a career-high 15 points as the Titans never trailed and held on for a 52-50 victory over UW-Eau Claire in the title game of the WIAC Championship (presented by Culver's) on Saturday (Feb. 29) in Eau Claire.
Miller made a pair of free throws to extend UW-Oshkosh's lead to 50-47 with 4:49 remaining in the fourth quarter. After the teams exchanged five scoreless possessions during a stretch of nearly three minutes, UW-Eau Claire's Maizie Deihl split two free throws to pull the Blugolds within 50-48 at the 1:55 mark. Miller then collected her own missed layup and scored in the lane to provide the Titans a 52-48 advantage with 79 seconds remaining.
UW-Eau Claire's Hallee Hoeppner, the 2019 WIAC Player of the Year, recorded a steal and drove for a layup that cut the Blugolds' deficit to 52-50 with 45 seconds to play. Following a UW-Oshkosh turnover with 16 seconds to go, Miller was called for a foul during a scramble for a loose ball near midcourt with one second left, and Deihl's running jumper from just inside the 3-point arc was off the mark for the Blugolds as time expired.
UW-Oshkosh (18-10), the first fourth-seeded team to win the WIAC Championship, earns the league's automatic berth into the 64-team national tournament that begins March 6. The Titans will learn their Division III Championship first round opponent and venue during an online selection show Monday (March 2) at 1:30 p.m. (central). During its unprecedented run of three straight wins as the fourth seed in the conference tournament, UW-Oshkosh trailed for a total of just two minutes, 57 seconds – all in the 81-65 semifinal victory Thursday (Feb. 27) at fourth-ranked and top-seeded UW-Whitewater (23-3).
Miller finished Saturday's title game shooting 6-for-9 from the field to surpass her previous career high of 11 points established on two occasions earlier this season.
Nikki Arneson and Leah Porath added 14 and 10 points, respectively, for the Titans while Olivia Campbell had six points, a game-high eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block. UW-Oshkosh reserve Karsyn Rueth chipped in five points.
Porath, who has scored in double figures 31 times in the past 32 games, went into the contest averaging a WIAC-leading 17.6 points per game. Campbell, who did not commit a turnover while playing all 40 minutes, was pacing the conference with 4.1 assists per game and a 1.93 assist-to-turnover ratio.
The Titans, who have won nine of their last 12 meetings against UW-Eau Claire, avenged two regular season losses to the Blugolds, who defeated UW-Oshkosh by scores of 62-60 Jan. 15 in Oshkosh and 66-62 Feb. 5 in Eau Claire. UW-Oshkosh has been victorious during each of the past 25 games in which its has held opponents under 60 points.
UW-Oshkosh clinched the conference title after shooting 18 of 47 (.383) from the field, 3-for-20 (.150) from 3-point range and 13 of 16 (.813) at the free throw line. The Titans held a 2-1 edge in blocks. Both teams had 10 turnovers and five steals.
UW-Eau Claire went 22 of 60 (.367) from the floor, 3-for-14 (.214) from beyond the 3-point arc and 3-for-6 (.500) at the foul line. The Blugolds, who conclude their season with an 18-10 record, owned advantages of 39-34 in rebounds, 13-6 in offensive boards and 12-7 in assists.
Anna Graaskamp led UW-Eau Claire with 14 points. She went 7-for-11 from the floor and grabbed eight rebounds.
Hoeppner had 13 points and six rebounds for the Blugolds, who also received 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds from Kelsey Bakken in 23 minutes off the bench.
Graaskamp, Hoeppner and Bakken combined to shoot 17 of 30 from the field while seven other Blugolds went a combined 5-for-30.
UW-Oshkosh scored the first seven points as Porath drove for a layup on the game's opening possession, Campbell followed with a layup of her own and Miller drained a 3-pointer with 7:06 left in the first quarter. UW-Eau Claire responded with six straight points to pull within 7-6, but the Blugolds never claimed the lead the entire game.
The Titans increased their advantage to 14-6 late in the opening period and entered the second quarter with a 14-12 lead. Brooke Freitag drained a pair of free throws for a 24-18 Titan lead with just under six minutes to play in the first half, but the Blugolds held UW-Oshkosh scoreless for the remainder of the period and cut their deficit to 24-22 at intermission.
UW-Oshkosh built eight-point leads on three occasions during the third quarter, taking a 32-24 advantage on a Miller layup before Arneson's basket in the lane upped the lead to 34-26 and another Miller layup made the score 36-28 with 4:31 left in the period. However, UW-Eau Claire pulled even for the first time at 40 after Hoeppner's three-point play with 25 seconds to go in the third quarter.
The Titans reclaimed a 46-40 lead following an Arneson 3-pointer, a Porath jumper and an Arneson free throw in the opening minutes of the final quarter until the Deihl's 3-pointer cut the UW-Oshkosh advantage in half with 6:50 remaining. Katie Essen then drove for a layup on the next UW-Eau Claire possession to pull the Blugolds within 46-45. Essen later scored again in the lane to cut UW-Oshkosh's lead to 48-47 with 5:16 left.
UW-Oshkosh entered the conference tournament final leading the country with 12.0 turnovers per game and pacing the league in field goal (.427) and 3-point (.340) percentages, made 3-pointers per game (7.6) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.08).
The WIAC postseason title is UW-Oshkosh's second straight and sixth overall. The Titans, who have a 15-2 record since 2014 at the WIAC Championship and have appeared in seven consecutive finals, also clinched tournament titles in 1999, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019. UW-Oshkosh boasts a 29-13 overall record in the WIAC postseason. The Titans' 29 wins and .691 winning percentage at the league tournament lead the conference.
UW-Eau Claire and UW-Oshkosh met in the WIAC Championship final for the fourth time. The Titans won the inaugural conference tournament championship over the Blugolds in 1999. The Blugolds, who also claimed the 2001 WIAC tournament title, defeated UW-Oshkosh in both the 2000 and 2003 championship games.
UW-Oshkosh, which will be making its 16th trip to the Division III Championship, won the national title in 1996 and finished as the runner-up in 1995. The Titans have won at least one NCAA postseason game in their previous five appearances under head coach Brad Fischer, advancing to the third round in 2014, 2017 and 2019.