NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinal Game - Wartburg vs UW-Oshkosh 3-8-19

A much, much easier drive from work at Canadian Pacific Railway in downtown Minneapolis over to UST's Schoenecker Arena awaited me on this Friday afternoon compared to a week ago as I geared up for this epic Sweet 16 Regional pod being hosted by UST this weekend.  The first game on tap on this Friday evening was an intriguing one indeed that pitted ARC champ Wartburg against WIAC champ UW-Oshkosh (b' gosh).  The Knights surprised a lot of people this season with the fine year they had considering the losses to graduation they suffered from a year ago but Head Coach Bob Amsberry and his staff have been able to reload and get their squad into position again.  Meanwhile, this would be my first look at the Titans who won another WIAC regular season tile and WIAC Championship Game and survived a tough, second-round battle with DePauw the previous weekend to get to this point.  Naturally anyway, you knew this game would have a lot to offer.

UW-Oshkosh would draw first blood in this contest as freshman guard Brooke Freitag drained a "3' from the top of the key at the 9:24 mark of the opening period but the Knights would come right back as junior forward Amanda Brainerd snared a steal and dashed the other way for a lay-up at the 8:07 mark and a drive into the lane and finish off the glass by sophomore forward Tori Hazard at the 7:24 mark allowed Wartburg to poke its nose out in front by a 4-3 count.  The Titans would return the favor as sophomore reserve post Karsyn Rueth knocked down a jumper from near the free throw line at the 5:39 mark but then the Knights would come right back and take the lead again as sophomore guard Ally Conrad banged home a "3" from the right wing area with 4:47 left to make it a 7-5 game.  UW-Oshkosh sophomore guard Leah Porath would forge a tie with her pretty drive for a finish with 4:22 left and her short, turnaround jumper with 2:57 left kept the game tied at 9-all.  After Wartburg's Brainerd put her team ahead again with her score in the paint with 2:43 left, Titan senior guard/forward Jessie Rabas would connect with a lay-up with 2:18 left to knot this contest up again at 11-all.  The Knights, however, made the first decisive move of this contest with a key 9-0 run to end this first period.  Junior reserve forward Katie Lindeman buried a "3" from the right top area with 2:07 left and a Brainerd score in the paint with 1:35 left had Wartburg up 16-11.  One free throw by junior forward Emma Gerdes with 1:21 left got the lead to 17-11 and then Gerdes would bang home a "3" from the top of the key to give the Knights a 20-11 lead going into the second period. 

UW-Oshkosh senior forward Melanie Schneider tried to give her team a boost with her three-point bomb from the left top area at the 9:47 mark of the second period that cut the deficit down to six points at 2014 but then the Knights would go on an 8-0 tear that put the WIAC champs in an even tougher spot.  Back-to-back three-point bombs - one by sophomore reserve forward Kaitlyn Volesky from the right wing area at the 8:56 mark and another one by Conrad from the left corner at the 8:21 mark - now had Wartburg up 26-14 and Titan Head Coach Brad Fischer knew he had some big-time defensive problems on his hand and called a timeout in hopes of rectifying the situation.  Still, the Knights would cap this important run when freshman reserve guard Hannah Anderson sneaked into the paint for a score at the 8:08 mark before UW-Oshkosh's Schneider could end the Titan drought with her short jumper in the lane at the 6:46 mark.  But the Knights had another 8-2 run in them that opened up even more distance.  Lindeman drained her second trey of the game - this one from the top of the key at the 6:37 mark and a Volesky score in the paint at the 6:10 mark had Wartburg up 31-18.  Then Volesky would bury a "3" from the top of the key with 4:33 left to push the Knights lead to 34-20 before the Titans could attempt to dig themselves out of this mess.  Schneider grabbed an offensive rebound of her own miss for a putback with 4:00 left that also drew a foul that allowed the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin native to sink the obligatory free throw and freshman reserve guard Brooklyn Bull banged home a "3" from the top of the key with 3:02 left that now had UW-Oshkosh back in single-digit range again down 34-26 but the Knights would get the lead back up to eleven when sophomore reserve guard Payton Draper slithered into the paint for a score and drew a foul in the process and her ensuing "and one" pushed the lead to 37-26 before the Titans could climb back into single-digit range again as senior reserve forward Erin Vande Zande snared a long offensive rebound and got a lay-up out of it with :51 left but UW-Oshkosh still had a lot of making up to do as the teams headed to the locker room for the halftime intermission with Wartburg holding a 37-28 lead.  A check of the first half box score shows that the Titans surprisingly had a small edge on the boards at 16-14 and both teams surprisingly had the same amount of turnovers in the first half - nine.  The big difference thus far was the shooting where the Knights were 14-26 from FG range for 53.8% and 7-12 from downtown for a blistering 58.3%.  UW-Oshkosh meanwhile was only 13-31 from FG range for 41.9% and only 3-16 from behind the arc for an icy 18.8%. 

The Titans appeared to get things finally going on offense once the third period got underway as sophomore forward Nikki Arneson knocked down a short jumper in the lane at the 8:54 mark and an Arneson "3" from the left top area at the 7:07 mark now had the deficit down to six points at 39-33.  Porath would score on a pretty give-and-go lay-up at the 6:21 mark and a Rabas drive and lay-up at the 5:00 mark now had UW-Oshkosh back in striking distance again down four at 41-37.  The Knights tried to stretch things out again on a score in the paint by Volesky with 4:42 left but then the Titans' Rueth uncorked a "3" from the top of the key with 4:27 left that suddenly had UW-Oshkosh back within a single possession down 43-40 and a Porath jumper from the right elbow area with 3:04 left kept the Titans in that three-point range down 45-42 and certainly there was every reason to believe that UW-Oshkosh could bring this one back.  The Knights managed to stretch things out a bit as Gerdes was able to knock down a short jumper in the lane off of an inbounds pass with 2:44 left and two free throws by senior post Adrienne Boettger with :53.8 left had Wartburg up 49-42 but the titans slimmed it back down to five points when Schneider made a hard drive into the lane and connected with a short shot and UW-Oshkosh was certainly in a much better position down 49-44 than they were in that forgettable second period. 

But just when things appeared to be looking up for the Titan faithful on this Friday night, things took a decided turn for the worse once the fourth period got underway as Wartburg opened things up with a 7-2 push that ultimately proved to be too much for the WIAC champs to overcome.  One freebie by Brainerd after she was fouled at the 8:19 mark and a Lindeman "3" from the right wing area at the 7:47 mark suddenly increased the Knights lead to nine at 53-44 and a concerned Fischer of UW-Oshkosh called a thirty-second timeout in hopes of a quick fix.  The Titans' Bull countered with a three-point play the old-fashioned way with her drive into traffic for a finish at the 6:24 mark that drew a foul and resulted in the ensuing "and one" but that was quickly met by a Wartburg response of the same kind as Conrad made a drive for a lay-up and got hacked in the process and the obligatory free throw by the Cedar Falls, Iowa native re-established the nine-point edge at 56-47.  The Titans curiously went cold on the offensive end and all they could muster in the next two minutes was two free throws by Porath when she was fouled with 4:10 left.  So being down by seven certainly was still a doable proposition for UW-Oshkosh with this much time left but when the Knights' Volesky buried a back-breaking "3" from the top of the key with 3:49 left to make it a 59-49 game, that changed things considerable and now the Titans were forced to gamble more than they probably would have liked to and this enabled Wartburg to get a stranglehold on things.  Brainerd got a score in the paint with 3:06 left to maintain the ten-point edge at 61-51 and two Brainerd free throws after she was fouled with 2:13 left did the same at 63-53.  UW-Oshkosh had one glimmer of slim hope left when Porath connected with a short jumper in the lane with 1:50 left to trim the deficit to eight points at 63-55 but now the Titans had to foul as well and this allowed Wartburg to put the finishing touches on this one from the charity stripe with insurance free throws.  Volesky would get one to go down with 1:36 left and Conrad would add two of her own with :59.9 left that made it 66-55.  Boettger would add a pair with :49.8 left and Conrad would add two more for good measure as the Knights advanced to the Regional Championship Game with a 70-57 victory. 

The UW-Oshkosh post-game press conference with Fischer along with somber seniors Porath and Chloe Pustina was informative and offered insights as to how/why the Titans fell on this night.  "It turned into a good basketball game....We didn't get off to a great start; credit to Wartburg for being a really good team that has a lot of weapons.....They can all shoot it and they did a good job of spacing the floor and had a really good post player that makes it hard to make decisions on who you're gonna guard.....They made it tough all night on that end of the floor.....Everything that happens in basketball comes from what the other team is doing and letting them get into the lead put extra pressure on us made it tougher to hit shots.....They earned it...We battled and couldn't quite get over the hump."  I asked Fischer specifically about how I thought the Titans perhaps settled for some three-point shots that maybe they shouldn't have necessarily settled for and although they managed to close the gap in that third period by mixing things up and showing a willingness to drive into the lane to get close again, they never could quite get over the hump.  "Yeah....From viewing film we knew it was going to be tough around the rim just with all their size and we so we stuck to trying finding people around the perimeter and we felt that with clean looks we were gonna knock 'em down.....I do think we were too willing to take (it) when we weren't knocking down shots.....Every time we made a run, they hit a big basket."  You can view the entire UW-Oshkosh press conference at this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li-2AXBQTMM

The Wartburg post-game press conference was attended by Amsberry along with Conrad and Volesky.  Amsberry:  "Yeah, just really proud of our team and thought we did a great job following the game plan.  Defensively in the first half and especially I thought we were really on-point and had them a little bit frustrated.  And then they came out at halftime and made a great run on us; gave us some problems.....And we switched a little bit of stuff defensively and we were able to pull that thing away again......I just give credit to our players; just staying in there and not letting tough runs really affect how we play.....And I thought we really made some really big plays when we needed to.....Hit a couple of really big 3's; timely, timely 3's and made free throws down the stretch....We shared the ball really well and thought we took care of the ball really well; especially after the first 6-7 minutes when we had turned it over quite a bit....Really proud of our team; excited to be here and we're excited to play another day."  I asked Amsberry about when UW-Oshkosh made that run on them in that third period about how his team never panicked and if the experience that this squad has had in previous years game them the confidence they needed to withstand the inroads the Titans were able to make.  "I don't know if previous years necessarily helped us.....But certainly this year, we've been in situations where people would hang around.....This group just stays together and never panics; stays really composed.....You know, we really got a lot of new players in the mix this year and for this younger group to do that I think says a lot about who these guys are."  You can view the entire Wartburg press conference at this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oweJDYwGW8

In checking the final box score, just like at the halftime break, the rebounding area really wasn't that much of a factor as the Knights had only three more rebounds than did the Titans and turnovers evened out as well with both teams committing 12.  One area where Wartburg did have an advantage in was steals with a 7-3 edge there but, in the end, it really came down to the shooting factor as UW-Oshkosh finished by going 24-60 from FG range for 40% but more importantly going only 5-31 from downtown for 16.1%.  Yikes.  Wartburg meanwhile shot a respectable 22-48 for 45.8% from FG range and was 9-21 from three-point land for 42.9%.  Volesky and Conrad paced the way for the Knights on this night with their 14 and 13 points, respectively.  UW-Oshkosh's Porath led the way for her team - and all scorers - with her 18 points while Schneider finished with 12.