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The No. 12 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women's basketball team erased a five-point deficit over the final minute of overtime and went ahead for good on Rebekah Schumacher's (Whitewater, Wis./Whitewater) steal-and-layup in the final seconds Friday night on its way to a thrilling 78-76 victory against No. 16 Smith (Mass.) in a third-round game of the 2022 NCAA Division III Championship at Kachel Gymnasium.
 
The Warhawks (26-4 overall) host Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival UW-Oshkosh (22-6) in the Whitewater Sectional final on Saturday at 7 p.m. inside Kachel Gymnasium. The winner of the contest advances to the Final Four, which will be contested March 17 and 19 in Pittsburgh, Pa.
 
Tickets for Saturday's game will go on sale starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Kachel Gymnasium entrance. Doors to the gym will open at 6 p.m. The first 150 UW-Whitewater students to attend will receive free admission courtesy of DLK Enterprises and UW-W Housing.
 
UW-Whitewater trailed in Friday's game 76-71 with just over a minute to play in overtime. Maggie Trautsch (Sun Prairie, Wis./DeForest) was fouled on a 3-point attempt on the team's first possession in the final minute and knocked down all three free throws to bring UW-W within two.
 
After a stop on the other end, Trautsch was fouled in the lane and hit two more from the free-throw line to tie the game at 76-76.
 
The Pioneers (25-3) advanced the ball into their half court following a timeout. With seven second to play, Schumacher stole the inbound pass and saved it to Aleah Grundahl (DeForest, Wis./DeForest), who fired a pass down the court to a wide-open Schumacher, who layed the ball in uncontested with less than one second on the clock.
 
Smith was unable to get a shot off before the final buzzer.
 
Kacie Carollo (Whitewater, Wis./Whitewater) tallied a team-high 19 points, while Grundahl finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and two steals. Yssa Sto. Domingo (Streamwood, Ill./St. Edward) knocked down five 3-pointers on her way to 15 points, and Trautsch hit 7-of-9 at the free-throw line on her way to 12 points.
 
The Warhawks converted 27-of-36 (75 percent) from the free-throw line and hit 9-of-20 (45 percent) from 3-point range. The Pioneers shot 46.9 percent from the floor.
 
UW-W raced out to a 6-0 lead before Smith rallied for the next 11 points for an 11-6 lead at the midway point of the first quarter. Trautsch gave the Warhawks a 19-18 advantage in the final minute of the period with a driving layup.
 
UW-Whitewater built its lead to six following a 3-pointer by Carollo with 6:21 on the clock. The Pioneers responded with a 9-0 run for a three-point lead just over three minutes later. Neither team led by more than one possession over the final half of the period, and UW-W held a 36-34 advantage.
 
The third quarter remained tightly contested until Sto. Domingo hit a 3-pointer between a pair of baskets by Grundahl for a 51-43 UW-W lead with 2:08 remaining. The Warhawk lead grew to as many as nine, but Smith trimmed its deficit to four by the end of the third.
 
The two teams went back and forth to start the fourth quarter before Carollo's 3-pointer with 6:29 to play made it 61-56. She hit two free throws just over a minute later for a 63-56 score before the Pioneers rallied to tie the game at 63-63 with 2:54 on the clock.
 
Grundahl gave UW-Whitewater the lead with 2:25 left, and neither team scored again until the final seconds, when Smith tied the game on a layup to send it to overtime.
 
Sto. Domingo started the extra period with a 3-pointer, but the Pioneers held the lead for a majority of the overtime before Trautsch's five free throws and Schumacher's final bucket sent the Warhawks to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2014.
 
UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh have met three times this season prior to Saturday's matchup. The Warhawks took two of three games from the Titans, including a 67-59 win on Feb. 23 in the semifinals of the WIAC Tournament at Kachel Gymnasium. The two teams split two regular season games, with the home team taking both contests.