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UW gets shot at revenge

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Also by Mitch Goza:

Ward stays hot, scores 14 (December 10, 2007)
Mistakes concern coach (December 7, 2007)
Badgers tame in-state rival Panthers (December 5, 2007)
UW prepares to 'Challenge' ACC (November 30, 2007)
Badgers must regroup, improve (November 27, 2007)

by Mitch Goza

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

The women's basketball team will look to rebuild momentum and avoid a two-game losing skid when it faces off against visiting Wyoming Tuesday at the Kohl Center.

The Badgers are coming off their first loss of the season last Saturday, dropping to Marquette 67-53. Turnovers plagued the Wisconsin on offense, and Marquette’s star Krystal Ellis gave its defense all sorts of trouble, scoring 31 points.

"Our game with Marquette was one that we have to quickly forget about, learn from and move on," head coach Lisa Stone said. "It's imperative that we learn from that feeling we had after that game and try not to feel like that again. It's a tough loss and one that hurt and stung for awhile."

The last time the Badgers (1-1) played the Cowgirls was in the WNIT championship game. In that game, they lost 72-56 and developed some strong feelings toward Wyoming.

"It's definitely a rivalry thing after last year, and although both of us have a lot of players back this year, we're still two different teams," said Dunham, who scored 13 points in the WNIT championship game. "It will be a good matchup."

Wyoming's leading scorer this season has been senior forward Justyna Podziemska, originally from Poland. Podziemska is averaging 19 points per game this season. Teammate and fellow senior forward Hanna Zavecz dropped 18 points to go along with eight rebounds against St. Louis last week. UW must defend those two players better than they defended Ellis of Marquette.

"[Wyoming] is a team that you can scout on offense and have it down pat, but it's not necessarily the person coming off the first option, it's the second cutters," Stone said. "A lot of times it's the screener you need to be aware of versus the person coming off the screen."

Offensively, the Badgers will look to take advantage of the aggressive man-on-man defense the Cowgirls play, which often lands them in foul trouble. In the game against St. Louis, three of the top Wyoming scorers fouled out or were in foul trouble late in the game.

"We look forward hopefully to taking advantage of our ability to get to the basket," Stone said. "Get to the free throw line [and] capitalize."

Additionally, the Badgers need to cut down on mistakes. Freshman guard Alyssa Karel had seven of the team's 29 turnovers against Marquette, a statistic Stone expects to be trimmed tonight both individually for Alyssa, as well as for the team.

"The turnovers were a bit uncharacteristic for us and disappointing," Stone said of her team's inability to maintain ball control. "We played a little bit hesitant in the first half, not to take anything away from Marquette, but we just made some poor decisions on our part."

Another interesting angle this game should take is that of an international flavor. Seven Wyoming players reside in countries outside of the United States, including Poland, Australia, Spain and the Czech Republic.

Wisconsin star Jolene Anderson, a three-time Olympic athlete in the under-21 division, has had plenty of practice playing the international game as well as fellow senior UW forward and Serbia native Ivana Mijalcevic.

"The taller girls are a little more guard-like, and they can shoot the ball. If they're in the post they don't bang you around as much," Dunham said of the international players she's faced thus far. "There is a little difference, but either way, they're good athletes."

Tonight's game marks the first regular season home game for the Badgers. Last year, Wisconsin went 17-3 in front of the "Grateful Red," a trend the team would like to have carried over into this season.

"We have to come out strong especially after our loss to Marquette," Dunham said about tonight's game. "We have to prove some things to ourselves and our fans."

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