The Wisconsin women’s basketball team closed out its 2001-02 campaign Saturday night with a 73-70 loss to Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Arizona State shot 65.5 percent in the second half to rally from a nine-point halftime deficit. The Badgers finish the season at 19-12, while three seniors, who rank near or at the top of most UW all-time records, end their careers.
“I was really pleased with everything, except that Arizona State shot the lights out in the second half,” coach Jane Albright said. “I wish we could have gotten one more stop.”
Cold shooting plagued both teams in the beginning of the game, as the contest got out to a 4-4 start after four minutes of play. With the score tied at every even number, frosh Stephanie Rich gave the Badgers an 11-8 lead with a trey at 14:14. Wisconsin extended its lead to 16-11 for an early five-point lead.
Leading 16-11, ASU’s second-leading scorer during the season, Melody Johnson, picked up her second foul and left the court. After extending the score to 18-14, UW added a 6-0 run to build a 10-point lead with Johnson in foul trouble.
Wisconsin put together another 6-0 run to take a 12-point lead at 30-18. Playing an excellent high-low game with seniors Tamara Moore and Jessie Stomski, the Badgers built their largest lead of the game, 34-20, with 1:31 to play in the opening frame.
But ASU remained close in the waning seconds of the first half with a couple scores to pull to within nine at the half. ASU only managed to hit 30.3 percent in the first half as Amanda Levens, the Sun Devil’s leading scorer through the regular season, was held to just one point.
“Defensively we played a pretty good game, we shot the ball well, we didn’t turn it over, we out rebounded them,” Albright said. “It was a game that was hard to score in the first half for both teams.”
ASU cut the Badgers’ lead down to five to open the second half, but Wisconsin responded with Moore inside, and Stomski hit another jumper in the paint. Levens, who tallied 13 points in the second half, drained a three-pointer at 15:37, but Candas Smith drove to the hoop and Ebba Gebisa added an old-fashioned three to cap a 9-3 Badger run. With an 11-point lead at 47-36 with 14-and-a-half minutes remaining, ASU put together a 7-2 run to pull to within six.
“It was quick buckets in the second half,” Albright said. “I would have felt that would have favored us, but it ended up that it favored them.”
At 49-43, senior Kyle Black tallied her first points of the game on a wide open shot off an inbound pass, and a layup extended the UW lead back to double digits. UW led 63-55 with 6:25 to play, but back-to-back three-point buckets from Levens and Cian Carvalho started an ASU 10-2 run to tie the game at 65.
With 3:16 to play, Johnson gave the Sun Devils their first lead of the game since 2-0 at 67-65 and later their largest lead of the game at 69-65. At 1:30, Black picked the perfect time for her first three of the game to pull Bucky to within one. Stomski gave UW the lead at 70-69 with 47.4 to play, but Carvalho, who finished the game with a career high 24 points, iced the game with four free throws down the stretch.
Moore finished her career at UW as the all-time steals (353) and assists (554) leader and tied LaTonya Sims with 124 all-time consecutive games played. Black finished second in all three-point categories (191 of 523 for 36.5 percent). Stomski, who tallied 19 points and 10 rebounds in her final game, tied Theresa Huff with 37 career double-doubles and Sims with 105 double-figure scoring games. Stomski finished second in all-time scoring and rebounding with 1915 and 961, respectively.