The UW Oshkosh women’s basketball team traveled to St. Louis for the Washington University McWilliams Classic on Dec. 1 and 2 where they lost to DePauw University (Indiana) and beat the host school, Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri).
UWO headed to St. Louis after an eventful past three games, where they found themselves winning a game by 53 points, then by 66 in the next and their head coach, Brad Fischer setting the all-time program wins record in the following game.
The Titans first bout in St. Louis against DePauw University proved to be a tougher battle than their previous three games. The game remained close in the beginning, where UWO would enter halftime trailing 31-26.
DePauw would expand that lead to 13 after a good third quarter performance. The Titans responded with a fourth quarter push, outscoring DePauw by eight in the period. Ultimately, the push was not enough as the Titans would fall 67-62, dropping their overall record to 4-2.
The Titans ran a tighter rotation than usual in this game, with only seven players tallying over 10 minutes of game time. Seven of those players would tally 20 or more minutes. Through the first five games, the Titans would usually have nine players tallying more than 10 minutes.
With increased minutes, we saw high scoring outputs from both guard Kate Huml (16) and forward Mallory Hoitink (20). Hoitink came off the bench in this contest, playing 20 minutes.
UWO would take on the hosts for the event, Washington University, the next day with hopes to right the ship after game one.
However, the first quarter was not an ideal start for the Titans as they trailed by seven after the first quarter of play. The Titans would respond by holding Washington to only eight points in the second quarter, cutting their deficit to one heading into halftime.
The story of the second half would be the Titans offense where they would score 22 points in the third quarter and 24 in the fourth. Their scoring outburst would be enough to surge past Washington for a 73-60 victory, improving their record to 5-2 on the season.
The Titans would once again trot out a tight seven-player rotation with Kayce Vaile, Kate Huml and Kennedy Osterman all tallying at least 30 minutes on the court. The Titans high scorer this time was Bridget Froehlke scoring 18 points in 28 minutes of action.
UWO will have a long break before playing their next game, which will be on Dec. 19. They travel to Wittenberg, Ohio to play in the Wittenberg Holiday Classic. The Titans are scheduled to play Berea College (Kentucky) and the host, Wittenberg University (Ohio), in the event.
