With only two games remaining in regular season play, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (19-8, 9-7) finds itself firmly implanted in the logjam that is the Big Ten conference. A mere three games separates seventh-place Northwestern from second-place Michigan State, and at least 10 teams have an outside chance at earning a first-round bye in next week’s conference championship.

Well aware of the conference situation, the Badgers are anticipating a battle as they travel to the Bryce Jordan Center to square off with the fifth-place Penn State Nittany Lions (16-10, 8-8) tonight. Last month, it was the Nittany Lions who stopped a four-game Badger win streak with a 54-43 win at the Kohl Center and altered the path of UW’s season.

Since that Jan. 21 contest, Wisconsin has followed a win one, lose one pattern.

Having defeated Michigan over the weekend, Wisconsin hopes to buck that pattern come Sunday.

“I think we are expecting a battle,” Wisconsin junior forward Tara Steinbauer said. “Obviously, they came in to our home and they beat us. That was an unpleasant experience, so I think going into this game, we’re really geared up and, hopefully, we come out being successful and having the right momentum going into the Big Ten Tournament.”

Last month against Penn State, Wisconsin played arguably its worst offensive game of the season, as the Badgers posted season-lows in points scored (43) and field goal percentage (28.1 percent).

In addition, UW struggled to control PSU’s uptempo transition game, which is led by the Big Ten’s second-leading scorer, senior guard Tyra Grant.

“Transition, transition, transition,” UW head coach Lisa Stone said. “They want to get it and go quick. … We need to resemble our transition defense that we demonstrated at Oregon — that’s a long time ago, but that’s going to be key for us. That’s the type of high-potent offense they’re capable of having. They’ve got the [second-leading] scorer in the conference in Tyra Grant, who is someone you don’t stop, you just try to contain.”

Complementing Grant in the Nittany Lion starting five are two more guards, junior Julia Trogele and freshman Alex Bentley.

Standing at 6-foot-2 and 5-foot-7 respectively, the backcourt duo combined for 25 points against the Badgers back in January and aid Penn State’s height advantage. Along with the 5-foot-11 Grant, the remainder of PSU’s starting lineup consists of a pair of tall forwards, 6-foot-4 freshman Nikki Greene and 6-foot-1 senior Meredith Monroe.

“They’re big; their starting lineup’s real big,” Stone said. “They pose a size advantage. However, they really want to run. You would think a bigger team would want to maybe slow down, but they push it hard.”

To combat Penn State’s size, Wisconsin will be looking for contributions from a variety of areas.

Against Michigan last Sunday, 6-foot-2 sophomore forward Anya Covington scored a career-high 19 points and pulled down nine rebounds in 30 valuable minutes off the bench. UW guards Rae Lin D’Alie and Alyssa Karel will also look to keep the Nittany Lion backcourt in check.

Standing at only 5-foot-3, but leading the team in assists and steals in her senior season, D’Alie is third on the team with an average of 8.2 points per game. Karel, meanwhile, leads the team and is tenth in the conference in scoring at 14.3 points per game.

The 5-foot-7 junior from St. Paul, Minn., has scored 20 or more points in seven games this season and will play a vital role in keeping the UW offense rolling for the duration of the game. In order to do so, Stone has led the Badgers through what she calls “toughener” drills to ensure the team stays tough on offense and defense.

“As coaches, you try to prepare your team for what they may see,” Stone said. “We do these ‘tougheners’ and finishing drills inside, and you’ve noticed statistically, our turnovers are down, we’re shooting the ball at a high percentage, we’re making our free throws, we’re scoring some points. All of those things are day-to-day. Offense is something that is just a part of defense.

“We continue to pretty much spend 75 to 80 percent of our practice on defense, and offensively, just make sure that we don’t put our defense back on their heels.”

For Karel, often the team’s sparkplug on offense, staying tough with the ball has been important all year. However, with only two games left on the schedule, playing strong is of utmost importance.

“We really tried to focus on that a lot more: where we have to be tough with the ball. We can’t really let the other team dictate what we’re going to do on offense,” Karel said. “Penn State’s a very aggressive physical team, and that’s going to be huge — huge — this game because they’re going to get up in our shorts, and we got to be able to handle that pressure.”