BLOOMINGTON, Ill.- The Illinois Wesleyan University women's basketball team entered Friday night's (March 14) NCAA Division III Championship Third Round matchup with UW-Oshkosh averaging 79.8 points per game. Oshkosh held IWU to a season-low 43 points while scoring 63 of its own to reach the national quarterfinal round for the second time under head coach Brad Fischer.
UW-Oshkosh last reached the "Elite Eight" in 2022, ironically defeating their 2025 quarterfinal opponent Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio) in the third round by a score of 74-63 before falling to UW-Whitewater on the Warhawks' home court.
Oshkosh's first Elite Eight appearance came in 1995, when the Titans advanced to the national title game before falling to Capital University (Ohio). In 1996, Oshkosh won the championship at Kolf Sports Center with a 66-50 victory over then-Mount Union College (Ohio).
The Titans outscored Illinois Wesleyan in all four quarters, including a 5-point first period, they fewest points IWU scored in a quarter since tallying five in the first quarter of a 63-34 win over Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Ind.) on November 30, 2019. Oshkosh shot 40 percent (24-of-60) from the field, 26.1 percent (6-of-23) from three, and 90 percent (9-of-10) from the line which led Illinois Wesleyan's 38.6 percent (17-of-44), 13.3 percent (2-of-15), and 70 percent (7-of-10) from the respective areas of the court.
UW-Oshkosh also forced 17 turnovers against eight committed and turned them into 15 points. Twenty-eight additional points came in the paint while 16 came off the bench and 10 came on second chances. Twelve of the Titans' 24 rebounds came on the offensive side of the court.
Avery Poole (Jr. • Cottage Grove) paced UW-Oshkosh with 13 points on a 5-of-6 clip from the field including a 3-of-3 mark from three. She was followed by Sammi Beyer (So. • Appleton), who scored 11 points off the bench.
Alex Rondorf (Grad. • West Bend) and Kayce Vaile (Fifth • Greendale) each ended the night with 10 points while Rondorf added six rebounds and two steals, and Vaile led Oshkosh with nine rebounds.
Sarah Hardwick (Jr. • Green Bay), who recently was named to the WIAC All-Defensive Team for the second straight season recorded a career high five steals to go with a pair of blocks.
Poole hit an early layup after Oshkosh won the tip and converted her first three-pointer of the night shortly later. The Titans never led by less than five points for the rest of the night.
Vaile made a layup with 7:18 to extend the Titans' lead to 7-0 before Illinois Wesleyan scored its first points of the night on a pair of foul shots. IWU scored twice more on a layup and another free throw in the quarter while Oshkosh added 11 points on five layups and an Allison Forney (Fifth • Batavia, Ill.) free throw.
Beyer opened the second quarter with a mid-range jumper to put Oshkosh up 20-5. Between 5:42 and 5:02 left in the half, IWU converted a pair of layups for four straight points, its longest run of the game, to cut the deficit to 23-11. The teams traded baskets across the final five minutes of the period and the Titans led 31-20 headed into the locker rooms.
After a layup and a free throw for the Titans from Illinois made the score 33-23 with just under eight minutes to play in the third quarter, Oshkosh slowly worked to increase its edge to 17 points, helped by a 6-0 run with four points from Beyer and a layup from Rondorf. Poole made a three-point shot with 60 seconds left in the quarter, making the score 48-30 before an Illinois Wesleyan layup brought it to 48-32 with 10 minutes to play and a trip to the quarterfinal round on the line.
Illinois Wesleyan was held to just one basket in the first 3:27 of the fourth quarter and Hardwick made a pair of layups followed by a Beyer three to push Oshkosh's lead above 20 points for the first time of the night. In the last five minutes of the game, Kate Huml (Jr. • Janesville) made both layups in trips to the line at 4:20 and 3:10, Beyer made a jump shot, and Hardwick converted both shots in her trip to the line. Illinois Wesleyan scored seven points on a jump shot and a layup before benching its starters just after the two-minute mark and added a three with under a minute on the clock.
UW-Oshkosh will face Baldwin Wallace (29-1) at 7:30 p.m. in the national quarterfinal. The Yellow Jackets advanced in the Bloomington Sectional with a 68-65 victory over Ohio Wesleyan University in the first game of the day on Friday. Oshkosh and Baldwin Wallace have played twice before, and the Titans have won both games. Before the teams matched up in the 2022 national championship, they faced in the opening day of the Rockford University (Ill.) Holiday Tournament on December 29, 2004. Oshkosh won by a score of 74-59.
The Titans are one of two WIAC schools remaining out of the five programs that qualified for this year's championship. UW-Stout (22-7) beat UW-Whitewater (24-7), 62-56, in the third round out east in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Blue Devils will face host Scranton University (29-1) at 7 p.m. central time.