OSHKOSH, Wis.- Nationally ranked UW-Oshkosh men's basketball shot a blistering 61 percent from the field during the first half and cruised to a 104-86 victory over UW-River Falls on Saturday (Jan. 17) in Kolf Sports Center.
 
Oshkosh (13-3, 4-1 WIAC), ranked 20th in NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, scored 100 points or more for the third time this season on the way to remaining in a tie atop the league standings with 19th-ranked UW-Platteville (12-4, 4-1 WIAC).
 
The Titans, the highest scoring team in the WIAC at 86.5 points per game entering the night, last topped the 100-point mark three times in 1994-95, when they accomplished the feat on six occasions.
 
Oshkosh, which improved to 8-0 at home on the year, owned a 55-44 cushion at intermission Saturday and led by double digits for the final 16 minutes of the contest and by as many as 27 points with 7:35 remaining. The Titans went 19-for-31 (61.3 percent) from the field and 9-for-17 (52.9 percent) from 3-point range during the opening period.
 
River Falls (6-10, 1-4 WIAC), which had won three of the last four meetings in the series with the Titans, allowed 100 or more points for the first time since a 100-83 setback versus UW-Stout on January 26, 2022. The Titans' 104 were the most points surrendered by the Falcons in the 472 games since a 106-61 loss at UW-Stevens Point on January 20, 2007.
 
The Titans featured five in double figures among their 12 overall scorers, including Michael Metcalf-Grassman (Shawano/Waukesha/Shawano Community) with a team-high 22 points to go along with seven rebounds.
 
Brandon Beck (Rockton, Ill./Hillcrest Prep (Ariz.)) added 18 points and a team-best eight rebounds for Oshkosh, which also received 13 points from Joey LaChapell (Appleton/Appleton East) and 10 points apiece from Vitorio Dante (Castle Rock, Colo./Castle View) and Carter Thomas (Neenah/Neenah). Aiden Hawkinson (Waupun/Waupun) and Oskar Kangas (Iron Mountain, Mich./Iron Mountain) chipped in eight and seven points, respectively, as all 18 Titans in uniform saw playing time.
 
LaChapell, the active NCAA leader in career free throw percentage at .937, made all three of his free throw attempts Saturday to extend his streak to 23 consecutive makes at the foul line.
 
Oshkosh concluded the game shooting 50 percent (33-66) from the floor, 32.4 percent (11-34) from beyond the 3-point arc and 75 percent (27-36) at the free throw line while owning advantages of 39-34 in rebounds, 15-10 in assists, 12-16 in turnovers and 5-3 in blocks.
 
The Titans, who went into the night ranked sixth nationally with 11.9 made 3-pointers per game, made at least 11 from beyond the arc for the 13th time in 16 games on the year. Oshkosh was also the conference leader in per-game assists (16.3), turnovers forced (16.4) and steals (10.4) in addition to averaged turnover margin (+4.5) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.38).
 
Jack Leifker paced River Falls with 22 points and eight rebounds. Owen Havlik had 16 points for the Falcons while Reggie Postel contributed 14 points and six steals.
 
River Falls suffered the loss despite shooting 32-for-63 (50.8 percent) from the field and falling one point shy of matching its best scoring output of the season.
 
The game featured seven ties and seven lead changes during the first 14 minutes before Kangas made a layup for a 36-34 advantage the Titans would not relinquish at the 5:11 mark of the first half.
 
A LaChapell 3-pointer gave Oshkosh its largest first-period lead of 13 points at 55-42 with 26 seconds to go in the opening stanza.
 
River Falls pulled within 59-52 early in the second half, but the Titans responded with 11 unanswered points during a span of less than three minutes to put the game away. The decisive 11-0 scoring run began with a Metcalf-Grassman layup and culminated in a 3-point play from LaChapell for a 70-52 cushion with 14:42 left.
 
Oshkosh went on to build its largest lead of the night of 27 points at 93-66 following a Dante layup with 7:35 to go. The Titans later reached the century mark at 101-84 on Metcalf-Grassman's layup with 84 seconds to play.
 
Oshkosh travels to UW-Eau Claire on Wednesday (Jan. 21) for a 7 p.m. tipoff. Eau Claire won each the teams' three meetings last season by double-digit margins.