Titans To Host Eagles In Nationally Ranked Scuffle
UW-Oshkosh hosts a showdown against UW-La Crosse in a clash of highly ranked Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball teams Saturday (Feb. 12). Tipoff for the Titans' final regular season home game of the year is scheduled for 8 p.m. in Kolf Sports Center.
UW-Oshkosh (18-3, 8-2 WIAC), ranked third in the NCAA Division III by D3hoops.com, is seeking to sweep the regular season series versus seventh-ranked UW-La Crosse (19-3, 9-3). The Titans held on for a 56-53 victory at UW-La Crosse during their first meeting on Dec. 4 as Cole Booth and Jonah Rindfleisch both drained a pair of crucial free throws in the final seven seconds.
A UW-Oshkosh win Saturday would perhaps provide the Titans the upper hand in earning the top seed at the league tournament heading into Wednesday's (Feb. 16) WIAC regular season finales. Seeding for the eight-team WIAC Tournament, which commences with first round games next Friday (Feb. 18), will be determined by the head coaches after the conclusion of the regular season.
UW-Oshkosh, playing its fifth game this season against a top-eight opponent, has won four of its past five matchups with UW-La Crosse. The Titans have won three of their previous four contests versus highly ranked programs this season, downing then-eighth-ranked UW-La Crosse in December and UW-Platteville (19-3, 8-3 WIAC), which was ranked second in both meetings and now lists fifth, twice by scores of 83-67 in Platteville on Jan. 19 and 65-51 in Oshkosh on Feb. 2. UW-Oshkosh's lone defeat against a ranked foe on the year was a 65-63 setback at then-fourth-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University (18-4) on Nov. 13.
Saturday's contest will feature two of the top defenses in the country as UW-La Crosse leads the conference by holding teams to 62.8 points per game while UW-Oshkosh is second in the league at 63.5. The Eagles, who rank sixth nationally with a .397 3-point percentage, face a Titan squad that leads the entire division by limiting opponents to 26.2% shooting from beyond the arc.
UW-Oshkosh, winner of 17 of its last 18 home games, also ranks fourth in the country with 9.3 turnovers per contest while leading the WIAC in average scoring (+15.3) and rebounding (+8.4) margins in addition to assist-to-turnover ratio (1.31).
UW-La Crosse, sporting an 11-1 road record on the year, also boasts a conference-best .399 field goal percentage defense and a +2.9 average turnover margin.
Levi Borchert leads UW-Oshkosh with 18.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game while shooting 63.2% from the field. Borchert, a 2021 D3hoops.com Third Team All-American, paces the conference in rebounding and with 11 double-doubles, ranks third in scoring and has produced the 12th-best field goal percentage in Division III.
Three other Titans are averaging better than 11 points per game as Eddie Muench scores 14.7 per contest, Hunter Plamann 13.1 and Quinn Steckbauer 11.4. Muench has drained a team-best 52 3-pointers while Plamann has dished out 78 assists and Steckbauer is shooting 49.3% from the field.
Eric Peterson has started each game for UW-Oshkosh this year, averaging 6.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists. Booth, shooting 52.6% from the floor this season, is adding 9.1 points per game while Jonah Rindfleisch and JT Petrie are chipping in 5.0 and 2.7 points per contest, respectively, in reserve roles.
UW-La Crosse's Ethan Anderson is the WIAC leading scorer at 19.1 points per game, shooting 52.3% from the field and 86.4% at the free throw line.
Eight additional Eagles are adding at least 4.4 points per contest, including reigning WIAC Player of the Year Wyatt Cook at 11.7 per game, Seth Anderson at 8.6, Henry Noone at 7.7, Austin Westra at 7.7, Torin Hannah at 5.3, and Will Fuhrmann and Sean Suchomel at 4.5.
Noone has gone 53 of 110 (.482) from 3-point range this season. Cook and Suchomel both average a team-high 6.0 rebounds per game while Suchomel leads the team with 85 assists and 35 steals.
UW-Oshkosh and UW-La Crosse have battled in Oshkosh as top-25 teams just once previously since the D3hoops.com poll debuted in 1999. The 22nd-ranked Eagles upset fifth-ranked UW-Oshkosh, 73-62, in the only other meeting of its kind Jan. 31, 2007, in Kolf Sports Center. The Eagles and Titans have faced off in La Crosse as D3hoops.com top-25 programs on five occasions with UW-La Crosse winning three of those games.
UW-Oshkosh students attending Saturday's game will receive FREE pizza at halftime and have an opportunity to win one of the five $100 Downtown Oshkosh Business Gift Cards (donated by Lyndee Lewis State Farm Insurance) that will be given away.