Pioneers sail away from Titans in second half of season opener

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – After a two-point deficit at halftime, a dominant second half secured the 88-75 victory for University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball (1-0, WIAC 1-0) over the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (0-1, WIAC 0-1). Wednesday night's match-up on Bo Ryan Court featured the returning WIAC regular season conference champions, the Pioneers  and the Titans, the returning conference tournament champions. It also marked the first competition for both teams in 333 days since competing in the second round of the 2020 NCAA DIII Championship.

The Pioneers went 18 of 37 from the floor in the second half, including 6-for-10 in 3-point territory to pull away after a narrow 37-35 deficit at halftime. With nine lead changes in the game, UW-Platteville's 10-point run with 12 minutes remaining opened the gates for the Pioneers to take the lead for the final time at the 10:34 mark.

"I was pleased with the way we responded in the second half. I anticipated that we were going to have to shake off the rust early on. Very pleased with the fact that we didn't press and stayed within ourselves," said head coach Jeff Gard. "Biggest victory of the night came with the fact that we were able to step back on the floor an play! Big thank you goes out to our administration for making it possible."

Justin Stovall (Sr./Chicago, Ill) led the Pioneers with a career high 24 points and recorded one of two double-doubles across the league on Wednesday night with 10 boards.

Logan Pearson (Fr./Appleton, Wis.) shined in his first collegiate game reaching double figures with 14 points.

As part of four starters reaching double digits, Quentin Shields (Sr./Chicago, Ill.) tallied 19 points, three steals, three assists, and two rebounds while Kyle Tuma (Jr./Valders, Wis.) chipped away 15 points with seven rebounds.

In the process of returning to competition, the Pioneers were slow out of the blocks as the Titans jumped to an early 10-2 lead. With 13:00 left in the half, UW-Platteville evened the score 13-13 and took its first lead at 24-23 at the 6:31 mark.  The Pioneers would have held the edge at the half if it wasn't for a Hunter Plamann three pointer at the buzzer to give the Titans the 37-35 advantage at the break.

The teams swapped the lead multiple times to start the second half, but it was in the final six minutes when the Pioneers fell into rhythm with a Tuma three-pointer and back-to-back-to-back layups from Stovall, Shields, and Pearson to build a 78-69 buffer with 3:42 left in the game. Opposite of UW-Oshkosh's largest lead of eight in the first two minutes of the game, UW-Platteville's biggest lead of 16 points fell with 0:44 remaining.  

The Pioneers finished the night shooting 54 percent (34-63) from the floor, 36.4 percent (8-22) from 3-point territory, and 60 percent (12-30) at the free throw line.

UW-Oshkosh shot 48.2 percent (27-56) from the field, 41.4 percent (12 of 29) from the 3-point arc, and 60 percent (9-15) from the foul line.

Head-to-head, the Pioneers held advantages in rebounds (37-31), assists (12-7), turnovers (12-16), blocks (5-1), and steals (7-4).

Wednesday's game is available on-demand at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/uwplatt/ and features UW-Platteville's very own Chancellor Dennis J. Shields and UW-Platteville alum, Daryl Fischer as color and play-by-play commentators. 

The Pioneers and Titans will face off once again on Friday, Feb. 5 at UW-Oshkosh. As part of a WIAC decision, no fans are permitted at winter sports competitions, but fans may watch live at: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/uwosh/