Men’s basketball second half comeback not enough to top Titans

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville men’s basketball team fell to the UW-Oshkosh Titans 86-81 on Saturday at Williams Fieldhouse, falling to 6-7 on the season.

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Men’s basketball second half comeback not enough to top Titans
January 9, 2016

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. —The University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball team fell to the UW-Oshkosh Titans 86-81 on Saturday at Williams Fieldhouse, falling to 6-7 on the season.

Senior Boston Johnson was the leading scorer for the Pioneers with 20 points, also logging eight rebounds in the loss. Sophomore Matt Oestreich also played well for the Pioneers, logging a season-high 19 points and five rebounds.

After gaining momentum throughout the first half, the Pioneers led the Titans for most of the half, up until the 7:21 mark when a Titan lay-up put UW-Oshkosh up 20-18 before a big run, putting the Titans up 36-28 at the half.

The Pioneers came out of the break with a fight, narrowing the margin to three at 45-42 with about 15 minutes left to play.

At the 10:23 mark, a Cory Vaassen jump shot and a Johnson lay-up put the Pioneers within two before the Titans went on a 6-0 run to put UW-Oshkosh up 56-48 with nine minutes left in the game.

The Pioneers shrunk the margin to two again with an Oestreich jump shot with about six minutes left to play, but this would unfortunately be the closest they would get to the Titans, who ran away with the 86-81 win despite a buzzer beater shot by Oestreich in the last second of the game.

As a team, the Pioneers shot 50.8% from the field, including making ten of 23 three-pointers and a perfect free throw percentage, making five of five.

The Pioneers return to action on Wednesday, Jan. 13 at UW-Stevens Point at 7:00 p.m.

Written by: Carly Willman, University Information and Communications, 608.342.1194, willmanc@uwplatt.edu