Box Score AMES, Iowa- The UW-Oshkosh women's basketball team got off to an unofficial start to the season on Tuesday (Oct. 28) when it played NCAA Division I Iowa State at the Cyclones' Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones won the exhibition game by a score of 84-53.
 
The Titans, who are entering the 2025-26 season ranked third in Division III by D3hoops.com and fifth by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, shot 35.0 percent (21-of-60) from the field, 29.2 percent (7-of-24) from three, and 44.4 percent (4-of-9) from the line.
 
Oshkosh held Iowa State, ranked 14th in Division I in the Associated Press' preseason poll, to 29.4 percent (5-of-17) from three including a 0-of-4 mark in the first period. Only two Cyclones reached double-digit scoring, and they never scored more than 28 points in a period while the Titans scored at least 10 in each.
 
Defensively, the Titans committed just 14 turnovers against the Division I program while inducing nine and never allowed Iowa State to score more than seven points in a row.
 
Paige Seckar (Oshkosh/Oshkosh West) led the Titans' scorers with 13 points, shooting 5-of-10 from the field and 2-of-4 from three with a free throw. She tallied four points in the first quarter before adding two in the second and scoring seven in the third. Seckar also recorded team highs in rebounds (six) and steals (two).
 
UW-Oshkosh's offense featured 10 total scorers in the contest, and 26 points came from the bench. The Titans' next-highest scorer was Bridget Froehlke (Wrightstown/Wrightstown), who scored eight points, including a pair of first-half threes. Mallory Hoitink (Hartford/Slinger) added six points, Mayah Holzhueter (Cambridge/Cambridge) five, Kate Huml (Janesville/Janesville Craig), Sammi Beyer (Appleton/Appleton East) and Jada Aliesa (Kuwait City, Kuwait/American School of Kuwait) four, Sarah Hardwick (Green Bay/Notre Dame Academy) and Avery Poole (Cottage Grove/Monona Grove) three, Mallory Lindsey (Mineral Point/Mineral Point) two, and Megan Geason (Franklin/Oak Creek) one.
 
Huml and Lindsey paced Oshkosh with two assists apiece.
 
The Cyclones won the tip and scored six points before Seckar put the Titans on the board with a free throw with 6:57 remaining in the first quarter. Froehlke and Seckar hit 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 14-7 midway through the period. Seckar scored her fourth point on a jumper and Poole converted a three in back-to-back possessions, decreasing the gap to six points before the Cyclones recorded a trio of points to close out the period.
 
Two-and-a-half minutes into the second quarter, Seckar ended a 7-0 Iowa State run when she went coast-to-coast on a steal for a pair of points in the paint. Mallory Hoitink (Hartford/Slinger) later registered a steal of her own just nine seconds after subbing into the game, passing the ball to Kate Huml (Janesville/Janesville Craig) for a jumper at 5:33. Hoitink then added two more points after a jump ball and bookended a missed Cyclone three with Bridget Froehlke's (Wrightstown/Wrightstown) second three for another run of five points to make the score 39-26. The teams headed into the locker room for the half with the score sitting at 49-28 in Iowa State's favor.

Beyer scored Oshkosh's first second-half points on a second-chance attempt facilitated by a Seckar rebound. The next three baskets for the Titans came in the paint. The Cyclones held the Titans without a run for nearly the entirety of the third quarter while managing just two runs of six points. Abbey Inda (Cottage Grove/Monona Grove) took the ball from the Cyclones with 42 seconds left in the period and passed to Seckar who connected on a jumper before Seckar swiped another possession at midcourt and sunk a shot as the clock expired to send the game to the final 10 minutes with a 71-43 score.
 
Oshkosh and Iowa State combined for 23 points in the fourth quarter as more of the benches got on the court, however the longest run of the period came between 4:04 and 3:05 when the Titans tallied five consecutive points on two Aliesa free throws and a Holzhueter three. Holzhueter later followed a Cyclone layup with two more points with one of her own. Megan Geason (Franklin/Oak Creek) recorded the Titans' final points of the contest when she converted a free throw attempt with 1:05 left on the clock.
 
Iowa State and UW-Oshkosh have each competed in their last six respective NCAA Championships. UW-Oshkosh head coach Brad Fischer and Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly took over struggling teams and have turned them both into perennial powerhouses while averaging over 20 wins a season.
 
The Titans begin regular season play on November 7 when they face Carroll University in the St. Norbert College Nicolet National Bank Tip-Off Tournament.