The in state rivalry between the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the UW-Madison Badgers was renewed Sunday afternoon in the women’s basketball game which ended with a 77-52 Phoenix win.
The visiting team from UW-GB was on fire the entire first half, connecting on eight of 11 three-pointers and six of six free throws. The Badgers managed to get off to an early start themselves, as Ebba Gebisa converted on a three-point play to put the Badgers up 9-7 five minutes into the game.
The Badgers out shot the Phoenix 57 percent to 25 percent and out-rebounded them 4-2 in the opening five minutes of the half. A series of Badger turnovers and wide-open three-point looks for UW-GB put the Badgers down 13-20 with 10 minutes remaining in the half.
“In the first half we over-helped a lot,” head coach Jane Albright said. “I think they only hit two shots inside the arch, which is hard to believe.”
In an attempt to get the Badger offense back on track, Albright brought freshman forward Jordan Wilson off the bench. Wilson scored five quick points in two minutes, cutting the Phoenix lead to two points, 20-18. The play of freshman guard Ashley Josephson also kept the Badgers close, as they went into halftime down 28-34.
“I just wanted to come in there and do what I could right off the bat,” Wilson said. I wanted to just keep us fired up … and do the best I could.”
The tenacious defense of UWGB forced its younger opponent into 24 turnovers and held the Badgers to 38.5 percent shooting in the second half. The 24 turnovers were one more turnover than the Badgers had field goals and showed just how tough it was for the Badgers to get anything started on offense. For UWGB, the win was the team’s largest-ever victory over the Badgers, beating the previous high by nine points.
“It’s a very big win for our program,” UWGB head coach Kevin Borseth said. “We beat a very good team.”
The second half of the game saw a UWGB team that made some adjustments to compensate for any shooting drought that might occur. The Phoenix started scoring inside of the three-point arch scoring 18 points in the paint, and continued to score off of Badger turnovers, ending the game with 30 such points. The Badgers failed to make any defensive adjustments, and although they made 46 percent of their shots for the game, they did not get enough shots off to hang with UWGB.
Ebba Gebisa led the Badgers with nine points and eight rebounds, as her sister Lello struggled to get shots off, finishing with six points. No Badgers were in double figures scoring, while the Phoenix had four players scoring at least 10 points, led by Kristy Loiselle, who was a perfect 4-4 from three-point land.
“We always go into each game saying lets just shoot on fire this game,” Loiselle said. “Lets have one of those games where we can’t miss.”
“Green Bay is a very talented team,” UW head coach Jane Albright said. “It’s no surprise they are picked to win their conference. They were like a very well-tuned machine out there; you take one thing away they leave it and take something else.”
The Badgers are now 0-2 on the season, with a difficult road trip looming ahead and the Big Ten season just a little over a month ahead of them.
“I think we can definitely come back from this,” forward Ebba Gebisa said. “These two games showed us a lot of things that we need to work on. I really think that we’ve got a good opportunity in front of us. We have this tournament, and we’re going to show them that we’re a lot better than what we’ve played so far.”
