The streak is over.
After winning a school-record 15 consecutive games, the UW women’s basketball team lost for the first time since before Thanksgiving, 92-85 to Minnesota. The unranked Gophers hit 11 of their first 13 shots in the second half and shot 34 for 58 overall–a 59-percent clip–to upset No. 7 Wisconsin.
“Wow,” said Minnesota head coach Brenda Oldfield. “What an amazing game. And I’ll tell you what–for this team and for our program, of where we’ve been and where we hope we’re headed, it’s a big, big win for our program.”
In front of 17,142 fans–the Kohl Center’s first-ever women’s basketball sellout–Minnesota’s point-guard phenom Lindsay Whalen played the game of her life. UW’s Kyle Black held Whalen without a field goal through the first 9:30, at which point Whalen caught fire. By game’s end the sophomore Whalen hit 12 of 18 shots, scored a career-high 32 points, grabbed nine rebounds, dished seven assists and swiped six steals.
“They had an answer, pretty much, for everything we tried to do, and we really didn’t have an answer for Lindsay Whalen,” UW head coach Jane Albright said. “We tried a lot of different things, and none of them seemed to work. For a sophomore, she’s really got a lot of composure–she’s got ice in her veins. She just really put them on her back today, I thought, and carried them in basically every area.”
The last of Whalen’s steals couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. With Wisconsin trailing 89-85, UW forward Kristi Seeger stood underneath the Badgers’ basket and threw an inbounds pass toward shooting guard Kyle Black at the top of the key.
In a blink-and-you-missed-it sequence, Whalen leapt in front of Black, broke up the pass, collected the loose ball and sprinted toward the Minnesota hoop. Black fouled Whalen before she could convert the layup. Whalen hit two free throws, sealing the game for Minnesota. Wisconsin would not score another point.
“Their first look on that play was for Stomski coming off to the corner, and when that wasn’t open, and it gets down to five [seconds], you know that they’re trying to get it in,” Whalen said. “I just tried to stay around the three-point line and tried to find somebody. I knew they were going to Kyle for the three, and I was able to get my hands on it.”
That sequence epitomized Wisconsin’s effort throughout the game. The Badgers cut Minnesota’s lead to six points at eight separate instances during the second half, only to have the Gophers score on each of the eight occasions.
While Whalen put on theatrics throughout the game, UW power forward and leading scorer, Jessie Stomski watched much of the game from the sideline with foul trouble. Stomski committed her second foul at 11:49 in the first half, yet Albright elected to leave her in the game.
Less than a minute later, referee Judy Schneider called Stomski for her third foul, an over-the-back call during a loose-ball scuffle in front of the Badgers’ basket. This time Albright replaced Stomski with Sarah Jirovec, and Stomski watched the final 11 minutes of the half from the Badgers’ bench.
When Stomski returned to action in the second half, she didn’t look like her usual physical self. She hit five of 11 shots, including her third three-pointer of the season, but she hoisted more jump shots than usual and appeared passive at times on defense and when fighting for rebounds. In short, she looked like a player trying to avoid fouls.
“It certainly does affect us when we’ve got all these people sitting [on the sideline] with me,” Albright said. “They’re not very good when they’re sitting with me.”
In addition to suffering their first Big Ten loss of the season, the Badgers also suffered their first major injury. With less than a minute left in the game, forward Ebba Gebisa tumbled behind the Wisconsin basket, in front of the first row of seats. Officials stopped the game for five minutes while trainers fitted Gebisa’s left ankle with a compression cast and moved her off the court in a wheelchair.
Tam Flarup, a team representative, later confirmed Gebisa’s injury as a high left-ankle sprain. Flarup said Gebisa would undergo a week of intensive rehabilitation and would be listed by the team as day-to-day. This leaves open the possibility that Gebisa could be ready for action by the time Wisconsin plays at Indiana Thursday.
