Pioneers contain WIAC's leading scorer in narrow loss to UW-Eau Claire

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Platteville women's basketball team executed coach Megan Wilson's strategy to a tee in Saturday night's WIAC contest at Bo Ryan Court.

Wilson's Pioneers continually attacked UW-Eau Claire's 6'4" standout sophomore Erin O'Toole offensively, causing early foul trouble, and at the other end of the court held the conference's leading scorer to just nine points by doubling her on the block using a hybrid box-and-one zone defense.

However, UW-Eau Claire senior point guard Tennie Lichtfuss made four three-pointers and scored a game-high 22 points as the visiting Blugolds snuck out of town with a 69-61 victory. Lichtfuss also added nine rebounds, four assists and three steals for the winners.

Freshman guard Morgan Horstman (Bangor) finished with a team-high 15 points, three rebounds, and two steals to lead the Pioneers before fouling out in the final minutes.

Junior Elisa Bilderback (Platteville) added 10 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Allison Prestegaard, who drew the match-up with O'Toole in the paint much of the game, finished with seven points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

Junior guard Morgan Hartman (Rochester, Minn./Century) had nine points and seven boards for the Pioneers. Freshman Kassie Buchholz (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glen Bard West) chipped in five points, six assists, three rebounds and three steals off the bench.

UW-Eau Claire improved to 10-11 overall and 5-5 in WIAC with the win. The Pioneers slipped to 5-16, 2-8.

The visiting Blugolds led most of the opening quarter despite the struggles of the star sophomore. Madison Johnson scored a layup with 36 seconds left in the quarter to give UWEC's a 13-10 lead.  

O'Toole, who came into the game averaging 19.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, finished the quarter 0-for-1 and committed three turnovers. She picked up her third foul just four minutes into the second quarter and finished the first half scoreless.

UW-Platteville opened the second quarter on an 8-2 run and took an 18-15 lead on Hartman's jumper with 5:24 left in the opening half. The teams traded baskets the rest of the half and went to the locker room tied at 27.

O'Toole final got on the board with a layup a minute into the second half, but picked up her fourth foul with four minutes to play in the quarter and again went to the bench.

The Pioneers led most of the third quarter, taking their largest lead of the game at 37-33 on a Buchholz triple with 3:13 left in the period.

UW-Eau Claire countered with 9-0 run, sparked by a pair of 3-pointers by Bree Meier, to grab a 42-37 lead.

Prestegaard hit a jumper, Hartman drilled a three and Prestegaard made one of two from the line as the Pioneers pulled to within a point at 44-43 at the quarter break.

UWP regained a 48-47 led, its first since early in the second half, when Hartman made a pair from the line with 7:03 left in the game, but Arien Becker made a layup on the next trip and the Pioneers never led again.

A Lichtfuss jumper made it 53-50 Eau Claire and Meier drilled another triple to push the led to six moments later and after a pair of Horstman free throws, Lichtfuss swished a three from the corner to make it 59-52 with 3:46 left.

The Pioneers got as close as three points, 61-58, on a Bilderback jumper with 49 seconds left, but the Blugolds made eight straight from the free throw line to close out the game.

UW-Platteville will travel to 15th-ranked UW-Whitewater (17-4, 6-4 WIAC) on Wednesday. The Warhawks recently defeated the Pioneers, 74-47, on Jan. 27. Whitewater is coming off a 73-55 victory at UW-La Crosse on Saturday.