EAU CLAIRE, Wis.- UW-Oshkosh women's basketball closed out the UW-Eau Claire Tip-Off Tournament in dominant fashion on Sunday (Nov. 8), reaching the century mark for the first time since 2003 and scoring the second-most points in a game with a 102-47 victory over Simpson College (Iowa) at the Sonnentag Event Center.
The Storm (0-2) scored the first two points of the game before
Mallory Hoitink (Hartford/Slinger) tied the score with a layup and kicked off a 17-2 run that handed Oshkosh (2-0) a double-digit lead it never relinquished. Simpson's longest run was a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers in the first period that cut the deficit to 14 points before
Sammi Beyer (Appleton/Appleton East) closed out the quarter with a three of her own.
Off to a 2-0 start for the third year in a row, the Titans, ranked sixth in NCAA Division III by
D3hoops.com and fourth by the
Women's Basketball Coaches Association, tallied the most points in a game since scoring a program-record 109 points at UW-Stout on Jan. 24, 1987. The Titans played 1,122 games between the two wins. The last time a Titan squad reached 100 points in a contest was a 100-49 home win over UW-River Falls on Jan. 25, 2003.
Oshkosh also matched its program record of 14 made 3-pointers and recorded 29 assists, the third-most in program history.
Oshkosh scored at least 22 points in all four quarters, marking 29 in the first quarter, 22 in the second, 28 in the third and 23 in the fourth. The Titans averaged 57.7 percent (41-71) from the field including an 11 for 17 mark in the third quarter, 53.8 percent (14-26) from beyond the arc and 66.7 percent (6-9) from the free throw line.
The Titans capitalized on Simpson's 30 turnovers (21 were steals) by converting them into 39 points while adding 52 points in the paint, 14 on second chances and 15 on fast breaks. Oshkosh's bench contributed 34 points while the team outrebounded the Storm, 39-29.
One of four Titans in double-digit scoring, Beyer paced the field with game highs of 20 points, six assists and five steals. She shot 7-of-13 from the field and 6-of-9 from three.
Paige Seckar (Oshkosh/Oshkosh West) went 6-of-8 from the field and 3-of-3 from the line for 15 points to go with six rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Emily La Chapell (Appleton, Wis./Appleton East), who score 12 points and
Olivia Witkowski (Fremont/Weyauwega-Fremont), who scored seven, also recorded six rebounds.
Hoitink was the third-highest scoring Titan with 14 points on six made field goals including two from beyond the arc.
Seven of the other 11 Titans that played in the game all scored at least two points in the victory.
Following the game-opening run, Oshkosh claimed its first 20-point edge on a Seckar layup with 3:10 left in the first quarter.
Oshkosh opened the second quarter with seven points in a row and reached a 30-point spread on an 8-0 run at 2:40 when Hoitink converted a layup. After Beyer pushed the lead to 51-19, Simpson closed out the first half with a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer that decreased the lead to 51-24.
The Titans used a 12-point spurt between 7:16 and 5:16 in the third quarter to build up to a 65-28 edge while they held the Storm scoreless for over three minutes.
Jada Aliesa (Kuwait City, Kuwait/American School of Kuwait) and
Megan Geason (Franklin/Oak Creek) combined for six points after 1:25 that permanently pushed Oshkosh's lead over 40 points.
Witkowski made a layup at 5:41 in the fourth quarter which created a 50-point cushion at 88-37 and while Simpson decreased the edge to 52 points by 1:58,
Lauren Adams (Norway, Mich./Norway) scored Oshkosh's final points with a 3-pointer that pushed the Titans past the century mark. One last layup with eight seconds on the clock set the score at 102-47.
Brenna Johnson led Simpson with nine points off the bench on 3-of-6 from the field, 1-of-2 from three and a perfect 2-of-2 from the line. Ella Anderson and Doryn Paup both pulled down a team-high six rebounds.
The Titans will compete in the Augustana College (Ill.) Hyatt Place Tournament on Nov. 13-14 and will face Wartburg College (Iowa), ranked 18th by D3hoops.com, at 7 p.m. in the first day of the event.
