No. 24 St. Norbert Tops No. 5 UW-Oshkosh In Top 25 Battle

From Sports Information Director, November 29, 2014 | Women's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College claimed a matchup between a pair of teams ranked in the D3hoops.com Top 25 with a 62-50 win over UW-Oshkosh on Connie Tilley Court at Schuldes Sports Center.

The Green Knights (5-1), ranked No. 24 in the poll, shot 51.9 percent from the floor to beat the Titans (5-1), who are ranked No. 5. It was St. Norbert's third win against a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe in four outings this season.

St. Norbert held a 36-29 lead with 16:46 left before slowly pulling away from Oshkosh. Mallory Nickerson's basket at 15:27 and Jill Kleiman's hoop at 13:43 gave St. Norbert a 40-29 edge. A pair of Morgan Kokta free throws with 12:17 to go cut the deficit to nine, but the Titans would get no closer.

Kleiman buried a 3-pointer and Heidi Van Sistine converted a reverse layup for a 45-31 lead with 9:56 left. Oshkosh's Alicia Tollefson connected on a 3-pointer but Brianna Byrne answered with a triple of her town on the next possession. Oshkosh's Taylor Schmidt made a pair of free throws to make it 48-36 with 9:01 left, but Byrne hit baskets on St. Norbert's next two possessions for a 52-36 lead with 8:16 to go. Oshkosh wouldn't get closer than 12 points late the rest of the way.

St. Norbert opened the game with a 10-2 lead before the Titans fashioned their only extensive run of the game, going on an 11-0 spree to take a 13-10 lead on a Schmidt 3-pointer with 11:41 left in the first half. The Titans led 19-18 with 7:12 left in the first half before St. Norbert ended the period on a 12-4 run to take a 30-23 into halftime.

The Green Knights connected on 27 of 52 field-goal attempts. Kleiman led the way with a game-high 19 points. Byrne added 13 points, while Tasha Giese had 11 points and Van Sistine 10.

Oshkosh shot 34 percent (17-for-50) from the floor, aided in part by St. Norbert blocking 10 shots. The Titans held a 33-30 rebounding advantage, which included 16 offensive caroms. Katelyn Kuehl was the only Oshkosh play to reach double figures with 15 points. Oshkosh had 20 turnovers against five assists.