The UW Oshkosh women’s basketball team advanced to its third Final Four in program history with a 60-53 victory over Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio) Saturday in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III women’s basketball tournament, in Bloomington, Illinois, at the Shirk Center.
The last time the Titans (27-4) reached the Final Four was in 1996, when UWO went undefeated 31-0 to claim the national championship.
UWO head coach Brad Fischer, who will coach in his first Final Four in his 13 seasons at the helm of the Titans, said that with nine seconds left in the game, it started to sink in that his team would be advancing to the Final Four.
“For me personally, I’m so happy that it’s this team that did it, because last year ended with some disappointment, and it fueled them to try to get better,” Fischer said. “I think it motivated people like Sammi [Beyer] and Alex [Rondorf] to join us. It got all of our people here, and we’ve been on the same page that we were on a mission this year. I feel like for me, it’s just the background of just trying to coach this team the best I can, and this is the result. And they all cashed in their stock tonight.”
In the Elite Eight, Oshkosh was led by Beyer, who scored 18 points on 7-for-15 shooting from the floor against the Yellow Jackets. Fifth year forward Kayce Vaile tallied 14 points and grabbed six rebounds while senior guard Kate Huml finished with 10 points.
Vaile said that she is incredibly grateful to be headed to the Final Four in her final year of eligibility.
“I honestly wouldn’t be here without the coaches and past players and my current teammates,” Vaile said. “They pushed me every single day in practice. And even though it took five years to get here, and we had plenty of good teams that could be in the same position, I think it pays a testament to our program and the standard that we set each and every day we step on the court together.”
Beyer said that the team’s ability to go on a four-game winning streak in the tournament after falling to UW-Whitewater in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship shows how competitive the conference is.
“I think every night it was you have to show up and you have to give your best in terms of advancing to the Final Four,” Beyer said. “[For me,] I think it was, ‘I want to get my teammates who haven’t made the final four yet to that final four.’ And that’s all I cared about. I didn’t care about anything else, and I just wanted them to get over that hump. I didn’t want them to feel that feeling that they had last year.”
The Titans shot 41.5% from the field and 15.4% from 3-point range as a team. Oshkosh forced nine Baldwin Wallace (29-2) turnovers and outscored the Yellow Jackets 30-24 in the paint.
Baldwin Wallace, which entered the game on a 29-game winning streak, was led by seniors Bella Vaillant and Emily Irwin, who both scored 12 points in the contest. Vaillant went 5-for-10 from the field and added six rebounds while Irwin went 3-for-9 from the floor and hit two 3-pointers. Sophomore Kayla Jones was the only other Yellow Jacket to finish in double digits after she tallied 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting and added three blocked shots.
Baldwin Wallace finished the game shooting 37.7% from the field and 29.2% from 3-point range. The Yellow Jackets outrebounded the Titans 36-28 and led 8-4 in second chance points.
UWO entered the second half with a 14-point lead, but Baldwin Wallace began chipping away at Oshkosh’s advantage following a 4-2 run out of halftime. The Yellow Jackets outscored the Titans 13-8 in the third quarter off 6 points from Vaillant and Jones to pull within single digits at the break.
Beyer began the fourth quarter with a jumper inside the lane, but Jones responded with a 3-pointer and Baldwin Wallace’s Caely Ressler converted on a layup to cut the Oshkosh lead to 45-39. UWO’s Paige Seckar connected on a 3-point play, and Rondorf hit a triple to pull the Titans ahead by 10, but once again the Yellow Jackets responded with a 7-0 run capped off by a jumper from Ressler to pull Baldwin Wallace within 3 points.
Out of an Oshkosh timeout, Vaile converted on a layup to put the Titans back up by 5 points with three minutes to go. The Yellow Jackets went 2-for-7 from the field in the final minutes while UWO sank five of its six foul shots down the stretch to pull out a 7-point victory.
UWO opened the game on a 5-0 run and with under seven minutes in the first quarter, the Titans embarked on a 12-0 after a Huml jumper to take a 17-2 lead. Baldwin Wallace cut its deficit to 10 points with 28 seconds to go before Vaile made a layup in the final seconds, and the Titans led 21-9 after the first 10 minutes.
Vaile said the Titans were able to edge out the win because of their togetherness.
“We go out every single night when we play for each other and think about doing it together,” Vaile said. “I think having that mindset to be us, play for us, we play together, and we get it done together. It takes everybody on this team, all 21 of us, to really do what we do best.”
Seckar and Rondorf combined for the first 5 points of the second quarter to give Oshkosh a 17-point lead midway through the period. The two teams traded baskets for most of the second quarter, but UWO went into halftime leading 35-21.
Fischer said that seeing the ball go into the basket in the first half gave the Titans the confidence they needed to get off to a fast start against the Yellow Jackets.
“You never know how nervous your team’s going to be, but we’ve also been through this,” Fischer said. “It’s not easy to recruit and find people that will buy into playing defense, and I don’t know how to make sure they always show up thinking that that’s going to be the biggest thing … but that’s how we win games.”
Fischer said that Oshkosh’s win over Baldwin Wallace, ranked No. 7 in the nation by d3hoops.com, capped a great weekend for the Titans after Oshkosh upset the No. 4 team in the nation in Illinois Wesleyan University 63-43 in the Sweet 16.
“I’m proud of these guys,” Fischer said. “The Final Four was not something that I thought a lot about when I got this job, but these guys have made it something that was on my mind, and it feels incredible to have a chance to go see what we can do there.”
The Titans will face off against Smith College (Massachusetts), last year’s national runner-up in the tournament, in the Final Four at the Cregger Center in Salem, Virginia, Thursday night. Last year, Smith ended Oshkosh’s season in the Sweet 16 with a 61-59 win in UWO’s only meeting with the Pioneers. The game against Smith will be live streamed on ESPN+ and locally on 90.3 WRST-FM.
