The UW Oshkosh women’s basketball post-season was halted by UW-Whitewater Wednesday, ending UWO’s 2021-22 season with a score of 67-59. The game being played was the semi-final which would lead to UWW and UW-Eau Claire duking it out Friday, with UWEC winning the WIAC tournament with a score of 77-63. However, this is not the end for the 2021-2022 season as they have squeaked into the ‘March

Madness’ tournament.

Wednesday’s game was an exchange of blows with UWW never achieving a lead over eight, and UWO never reaching past a six-point lead.
In the first quarter UWW took an early game lead, achieving eight points before the five-minute mark when UWO began to engage in a tit for tat battle. The battle continued throughout the game and concluded with Leah Porath, a senior, making an eight second transition from a defensive rebound to a three-point jump shot in the closing minute of the first quarter, ending it 15-14 in favor of the Titans.
The opening of the first quarter saw a strong UWO defense with a lacking offensive push. In the first minute they fended off two pushes by UWW resulting in a missed lay-up and jump shot. However, the defensive hold cut off near the end of the first minute when UWW player Kacie Carollo reengaged the point battle with a jump shot. After that shot, UWW was able to make seven more points without a UWO counter score. From that point on the second quarter was a relatively close game, with both teams suffering retaliation for each point taken, resulting in a UWO deficit of three points at the end of the second quarter.
The start of the second half came with a big Titan push for supremacy, resulting in a score eight points above UWW. The UWO lead lasted for a majority of the third quarter until UWW scored a three-pointer creating a neck and neck battle of supremacy with 2:49 left on the clock, resulting in a final third quarter score of 46-49 in favor of the Warhawks.

The final quarter of the game had an intense showing of defense from UWW, with UWO missing six baskets before an eventual layup by Leah Porath at the 6:27 mark of the game; after this she followed up her earlier defensive rebound to three point shot by doing it two seconds faster than before. At 3:12 Nicki Arneson tied up the game with two free throws, but a strong UWW push came resulting in a score that made balancing a strong defense with an offense that needed to be in overdrive extremely difficult. The final score of the game was 59-67 with a Titan loss.
Sophomore Kennedy Osterman on the season and how she feels about the upcoming years for UWO women’s basketball. Kennedy is a guard who feels the team is prepared to take up their new group of incoming freshmen.
“Nine seniors are leaving so the team will be extremely young this year, so there will be a ton of young talent,” she also mentioned the freshman by saying, “we have seven new-coming freshman who are all different from one another.”
But with a large group leaving the team, it would be inappropriate to work forward without acknowledging what they have done in their time to shape the program.
The seniors worked until their last minutes on the clock to continue the UWO legacy of excellence, with Nikki Arneson achieving her 1000th point during that final game against UWW, and other players such as Julia Magnuson and Allison Forney receiving praise from Kennedy.
The final game, though a lost effort, was an effort that will continue further with UWO women’s basketball in the March Madness postseason against Wisconsin-Lutheran on friday.