MENOMONIE, Wis. (blugolds.com) – The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire women's basketball team stormed back from a 19-point deficit to stun second-seeded UW-Stout 68-67 in the WIAC Tournament semifinals on Friday. Tyra Boettcher (Sr. – Menomonie, Wis.) made the go-ahead basket with three seconds left to send the Blugolds to the conference championship game for the second consecutive season and the third time in the last four years.
The Blugolds fell behind by 19 in the opening minute of the third quarter, but mounted a furious rally to erase the deficit. Boettcher made a layup with just over three seconds left on the clock to give UW-Eau Claire its first lead since the first quarter and send the Blugolds to the conference finals, where they'll visit top-seeded UW-Whitewater at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
UW-Eau Claire erased a 12-point hole across the final 3:33 of the fourth quarter.
"I have so much love for my team," Blugolds coach Tonja Englund said. "We needed a game like this where we had to come back. We had to be gritty. We had different people rising to the occasion at different times."
The Blugolds got off to a hot start, opening the game on a 7-2 run. Jessie Ruden (Sr. – Rochester, Minn./John Marshall) scored five points in that span. The Blue Devils made a push to recover, and the two teams were mostly even for the rest of the first quarter. UW-Stout led 19-15 entering the second.
The Blue Devils built a sizable advantage in the second period by outscoring the Blugolds 24-11. They started the quarter with a 9-2 run and added a 12-2 spurt later to establish a 43-26 lead at halftime. Courtney Crouch (Sr. – White Bear Lake, Minn.) was a bright spot for UW-Eau Claire, scoring seven points in the second quarter.
The Blugolds started to surge back in the third quarter, cutting what had been a 17-point halftime lead down to five. UW-Eau Claire outscored the Blue Devils 20-10 in the third. Crouch hit a pair of 3-pointers to sandwich a basket by Kylie Mogen (Sr. – Menomonie, Wis.) for an 8-0 run for the Blugolds in the late stages of the period. In all, UW-Eau Claire finished the third on a 15-6 spurt across the final five minutes. The deficit had been whittled down to 53-46 by the end of the quarter.
The dramatic fourth quarter saw the Blugolds go down by 12 at the 3:33 mark. But the resilient visitors outscored the hosts 15-2 across the final three and a half minutes for a stunning victory. Mogen hit a 3-pointer from the corner to make it a one-point game with 27 seconds left, and the Blugolds turned a defensive rebound into Boettcher's game-winner with just over three ticks left on the clock.
"Credit to Tyra at the end," Englund said. "That's a senior: Kept the ball, kept her composure and hit the shot.
"Every time I've been a part of a championship, we've had to win one like this."
Crouch led UW-Eau Claire with 15 points. Ruden added 14 points and nine rebounds and Boettcher had 12 points and seven boards. Bailey Reardon (Sr. – River Falls, Wis.) scored 11 points. Mogen chipped in with nine points.
The third-seeded Blugolds will play in the WIAC championship game for the second year in a row. They're the defending champions and will have a rematch of last year's title bout on Sunday. UW-Eau Claire defeated UW-Whitewater 77-63 in Whitewater last year to clinch the crown and the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament that comes with it.
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