UWL Women’s Basketball Falls in WIAC Semifinal
February 23, 2018
After losing to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Titans on Feb. 10, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women’s basketball team fell to them again Thursday night in the WIAC semifinals. This squashes the Eagles’ hopes of reaching the WIAC championship game and instead, the Titans will contend for their fifth straight WIAC Conference Championship appearance.
The start of the game was rough for UWL. Junior Titan Isabella Samuels scored the first six points of the game, and Oshkosh never looked back. The Titans jumped out to a 16-3 lead in the first quarter, as the Eagles were unable to create anything offensively.
In the second quarter, UWL started to turn things around, allowing only four points from Oshkosh. The Eagles were not able to get it done from deep in the first half, going 0-5 from beyond the arc. UWL also had a turnover problem with ten in the half, senior Elise DeNoyer committing 5 of those turnovers.
At the half, DeNoyer had played all 20 minutes and led all UWL scorers with eight points. Samuels of the Titans also had eight points as Oshkosh led 20-14.
Oshkosh won the third quarter, 21-13, to take a 41-27 lead. The game seemed out of reach until the fourth quarter of play.
After Oshkosh scored early in the quarter, the Eagles went on a 14-5 run to bring the game within six points. Freshman Ava Kramer had a total of 12 points in the fourth quarter, out of 21 total UWL’s points.
The late spark was not enough, however. UWO ends up winning 56-48 and advances to the WIAC Championship Game. The Eagles’ season comes to an unfortunate end at home. Kramer led all scorers with 16 points, going 4-8 from the field in 20 minutes of play.
The UWL women’s basketball team ends the season with a respectable 16-10 record. They went 9-4 at home and 10-6 on road and neutral games.
The Titans move on to the WIAC finals. They will face UW-Whitewater at 3:00 PM on Saturday, February 24. The game will be played in Whitewater. The winner of the game will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III championship tournament.
