The UW Oshkosh women’s basketball team closed out the WIAC regular season with a 65-50 win over UW-Stevens Point at the Quandt Fieldhouse on Saturday (Feb. 17).
With the win over the Pointers (15-10, 4-10 WIAC), the Titans (21-4, 12-2 WIAC) claimed the WIAC regular season title outright and secured the top seed in the WIAC tournament. Oshkosh will have home-court advantage for the tournament and will get a first round bye.
Oshkosh clinched a share of the WIAC regular season title on Wednesday (Feb. 14) and has now won 15 WIAC regular season titles, winning their first in 1985 and most recently in 2021. Four of those titles have come under head coach Brad Fischer, who became the winningest coach in program history earlier this season in the Titans’ 67-41 win over Benedictine University (Ill.) on Nov. 27. Oshkosh has now recorded 20-plus win seasons in each of the last 11 full seasons, all under Fischer.
UWO, ranked No. 15 in the nation by d3hoops.com, finished the game shooting 41.7% from the field and 34.8% from 3-point range. The Titans outrebounded Stevens Point 34-31, finished with more assists 16-14 and forced 15 Pointers turnovers.
Oshkosh was led by Bridget Froehlke, who scored a game-high 16 points and dished out three assists. Kayce Vaile finished with a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Kennedy Osterman scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds while Avery Poole added 10 points.
Froehlke kicked off the scoring in the first quarter with a 3-pointer and Poole added a layup seconds later to give the Titans an early 5-0 lead. An Osterman layup sparked an 8-0 Oshkosh run midway through the period to give the Titans a 13-2 advantage. Stevens Point ended the quarter on a 10-5 run, but Oshkosh held onto an 18-12 lead at the break.
The Pointers began the second quarter with a 3-pointer that cut Oshkosh’s lead to three points, but a layup from Mackenzie Tlachac and a pair of free throws from Poole gave the Titans a 22-15 advantage. Back-to-back layups from Vaile opened up an 11-point Oshkosh lead, and the Titans maintained a double-digit advantage for the remainder of the half. Vaile scored the last five points of the half to give the Titans a 37-21 lead going into halftime.
Stevens Point began the third quarter on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to eight points, but Osterman hit a pair of free throws and Froehlke connected on a 3-pointer to bring Oshkosh’s lead back to 13 points. Froehlke added another 3-pointer with 26 seconds left in the quarter and the Titans led 45-29 entering the final quarter.
The two teams traded baskets to begin the fourth quarter, but the Pointers embarked on a 15-4 run after a layup from Courtney Krueger to bring Stevens Point within five points. Vaile made a pair of free throws and Kate Huml connected on a free throw to give the Titans a nine-point lead with under two minutes to play. Oshkosh converted on its free throws the rest of the way and the Titans cruised to a 15-point victory.
UWO will receive a bye into the second round of the WIAC tournament, and will play the lowest remaining seed in the WIAC Semifinals at the Kolf Sports Center on Wednesday (Feb. 21) with tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m.
