WIAC top seed down to final weekend; MIAA clinched

More news about: Hope | UW-Oshkosh | UW-River Falls
Feb 17, 2016
Alex Richard and UW-Oshkosh fought off UW-Whitewater. Photos.
 Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com

The WIAC's top seed will come down to a head-to-head matchup on Saturday, while Hope clinched the MIAA in Wednesday night's Division III women's basketball action. 

The WIAC top seed will come down to the final Saturday of the conference season, as No. 13 UW-River Falls defeated UW-Stout 82-66 and No. 14 UW-Oshkosh edged No. 17 UW-Whitewater 60-57. Alex Richard had a team-high 13 points and Morgan Kotka added 11 off the bench for the Titans. Kate Theisen scored a game-high 22 points for the Falcons in their win vs. Stout.

Oshkosh and River Falls enter Saturday tied at 11-2 in the WIAC and will both be 20-4 when they meet on Saturday at UW-RF.

Maura McAfee became the first Hope women's basketball to get her 1,000th career rebound and the Flying Dutch ran their record to 24-0 and clinched the MIAA regular-season title. Hope enters its game at archrival Calvin on Saturday with a 24-0 record, 15-0 in the conference, after an 83-47 win vs. Kalamazoo. Hope broke open the game with a 35-9 second quarter for a 57-28 halftime lead.

"We don't have to share that with anybody," Hope coach Brian Morehouse said. "That was a big thing for me coming into tonight's game, coming into this year. I wrote on the whiteboard in my office "RTC2H" – Return The Championship 2 Hope. That's been a big thing for me, waking up each morning thinking about how could we make this team better, what we can demand out of our players, things we can change.

Scranton improved to 24-0 as well, leading wire-to-wire in a 56-42 defeat of Merchant Marine. The win tied the best start to a season by a Scranton women's basketball season, at 24-0, including 15-0 in the Landmark Conference. Alexix Roman led the way once again with a game-high 13 points. The last time Scranton started 24-0 was 1994-95.

SUNY-Old Westbury's Raven Pentz found Jasmine Robinson off the inbound for the leaning 3-pointer that beat the buzzer as the home crowd stormed the court in a 56-54 win vs. Farmingdale State. The shot gave Old Westbury its 20th win of the season.

Rose-Hulman extended its school record winning streak to 16 games and remained in a first-place tie in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference standings with a 59-36 win vs. Anderson. The Fightin' Engineers improved to 21-3 with the win. The 21st win also marks just the second time in Rose-Hulman history that a women's basketball team has reached the plateau, matching the 2006-07 team.

Katie Stone matched her career high with 21 points and No. 8-ranked St. Thomas secured a share of the MIAC regular season with a 66-49 home win over St. Olaf. The Tommies (21-3 overall, 15-2 MIAC), who never trailed, ran their win streak to 11 and shot 57 percent from the floor, including 10-of-23 treys. 

Christopher Newport trailed by seven early in the fourth quarter, but the 16th-ranked Captains scored 20 of the final 30 points, nine of them coming from Brooks Basinger in a 58-55 win vs. St. Mary's (Md.). Basinger's final 3-pointer gave CNU the lead for the final time with 1:13 left. She hit five 3's off the bench en route to a team-high 17 points.

No. 20 Maryville rode a dominant second quarter to a 63-53 win vs. Piedmont, avenging their one earlier loss in the USA South Athletic Conference. Mackenzie Puckett scored a game-high 20 points, going 8-for-12 from the floor, and the Scots limited the Piedmont starting five to just 21 points on 7-for-25 shooting.

Stasha Greenalch, Lisa Mendez and Sarah Rogers combined to score 22 of 25 WPI bench points in a 51-43 home victory over Coast Guard in a NEWMAC women's basketball matchup. It's the Engineers' first win in three games, snapping a two-game losing streak. WPI improves to 21-3 overall and 13-2 in the NEWMAC. Babson finished on a 10-2 run to edge Wheaton (Mass.) and clinch the top seed in the NEWMAC tournament with a 71-65 win. Kristen Ferola went 4-for-5 from 3-point range en route to a team-high 20 points.

Marywood set a school record for conference wins, defeating Summit 79-43 and picking up their 14th CSAC win of the season. Gabrielle Giordano led the Pacers with 16 points, while Catie Nealon provided 13 points as Marywood improved to 17-1, 14-1 CSAC. That win, however, only allowed them to keep pace with Gwynedd Mercy, which defeated Rosemont 72-55 and remains in the tie for first. The teams will settle the tie with a head-to-head matchup on Saturday.