The UW Oshkosh women’s basketball team faced off against Baldwin Wallace University Friday in a 74-63 win, followed by a 68-82 loss against UW-Whitewater..
The first game against the Yellow Jackets was a win for the team, as it was UWO’s first Elite Eight appearance in more than 20 years.
Head coach Brad Fischer said that he was super proud of his players.
“We’ve had a lot of talk about the pressure that being the best on the team means, with all of that pressure, these guys have done it all year,” he said.
The Elite Eight appearance on Saturday pitted UWO against UWW once again for the fourth and final time of the 2021-22 season. For the first three quarters of the game, the Titans held a lead over UWW with rare instances of Warhawks catching up and leading by one. But with around eight minutes left in the final quarter, UWO’s lead began to fall as UWW’s intensity picked up. At the beginning of the third quarter, the score was 50-47 in favor of UWO. By the final buzzer, UWO was outscored 21-12 by UWW,, resulting in the 62-68 loss.
In the post-game interview, forward Nikki Arneson talked about what being able to put the jersey on throughout the past five years has meant to her.
“This has been the best five years of my life,” she said. “There was a reason I came back for the fifth year. [Fischer] has meant the world to me; he’s one of the best coaches in the nation.”
“We want to do everything we can to help our team,” Porath said. “Obviously when you get hurt it’s hard. You see people fill in to replace you. We understand that it’s how it works, but being on the court is a lot better than being off of it.”
Injuries have been hard on the team this year, but players have continually fought through them, Fischer said.
“Leah probably shouldn’t have kept playing, Nikki’s knee is a mess, Julia [Silloway] tore a labrum, Abby [Kaiser] needs wrist surgery,” Fischer said. “But they kept fighting to get to the end of the season.”
Fischer said on court troubles with Arneson (knee) and Silloway (torn labrum) could be attributed to their injuries. “I’m so proud of these guys because they individually could’ve set it down and lost, but right now we’re in the elite eight. I just want our people back home to know that for UWO these guys gave everything they had.”