Pioneers Comeback Falls Short Against No. 6 Titans

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – In front of a full crowd in Williams Fieldhouse, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville women's basketball outscored No. 6 UW-Oshkosh 40-29 in the second half, but it was not quite enough to overcome the first half deficit. Coming off their only loss of the season, the Titans (18-1, 7-1 WIAC) defeated the Pioneers (8-11, 2-6 WIAC) 72-60 on Wednesday night. 

UW-Oshkosh built a comfortable lead early, scoring 16 of the first 20 points in the game and eventually leading 26-11 after one quarter. The Titans pushed that lead to over 20 and led 43-20 at halftime thanks to 55.2 percent (16-of-29) shooting from the field, including 8-of-14 from deep. 

In a tale of two halves, the Pioneers returned from halftime and senior Makayla Mau's jump shot started an 8-0 third quarter run which was finished by back-to-back baskets by freshman Grace Groezinger. 

Trailing by 20 points going into the final frame, a pair of trips to the foul line by Groezinger and junior Ella Mackiewicz cut the Pioneers' deficit to seventeen. Senior Brianna Prieve drained a three with 2:44 left in the game, narrowing the Titan's lead to 13 points. UW-Platteville went on to shrink the Titans' lead to 12 points following a made free-throw by junior Ava Hoppert due to a technical on the Oshkosh bench during a last second replay review. 

Outscoring UW-Oshkosh 28-20, the Pioneers shot 69.2 percent (9-of-13) from the field down the stretch, and made 9-of-12 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter. 

Mackiewicz paced UW-Platteville with twelve points, including making all eight free-throw attempts. Groezinger was not far behind with a career-high 10 points in addition to grabbing a team-best six rebounds.

UW-Platteville shot 43.8 percent (21-of-48) from the floor, including 26.7 percent (4-of-15) from three-point territory, and 73.7 percent (14-of-19) from the free-throw line. The Titans shot 50 percent (25-of-50) from the field, as well as 50 percent (10-of-20) from deep, while they finished 63.2 percent (12-of-19) from the foul line. 

The Pioneers, along and the rest of the conference have a bye weekend coming up and will return to action in a week when they head to UW-La Crosse for a 7 p.m. game.