The Wisconsin women’s basketball team, looking to gain some momentum before heading into the Big Ten tournament, will compete in their last home game of the season this Sunday, Feb. 23, when they play host to Jennie Lillis and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Lillis, the Hawkeyes’ leading scorer at 16.1 points per game, torched the Badgers in their first meeting, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in just 32 minutes of play.
Following the Wisconsin loss, 60-77, head coach Jane Albright pointed to her team’s inability to slow down Lillis as one of the reasons for UW’s defeat.
“We didn’t have anyone who could stop Lillis,” Albright said. “Whether that is heart and soul or whether it is skill; we didn’t have anyone to answer.”
Although the Badgers have been a relatively sound rebounding team throughout the year, in their meeting with Iowa they allowed the Hawkeyes to pull down 19 offensive boards, nine of which came from Lillis alone.
“When you play a basketball game, you have two battles,” said Albright following the loss. “One is a physical battle and one is a mental battle. I think we got beat in both battles tonight. They are the No. 1 rebounding team in the Big Ten, and you can see that when you play against them. They are very quick to the ball.”
Since their Jan. 21 meeting with Iowa, the Badgers have been a .500 ball team, winning four of their last eight games.
While the Hawkeyes have gone a mere 3-6 since their win over Wisconsin and have won just four conference games on the year, Iowa is still a force to be reckoned with. They have knocked off not one, but two ranked teams this year, including an 80-75 upset of Kelly Mazzante and the No. 12-ranked Nittany Lions earlier this week.
Iowa’s Kristi Faulkner, who has emerged as an All Big-Ten candidate in recent weeks, lit up Penn State for 27 points on 7-11 shooting and knocked down all but two of her 14 free-throw attempts.
Between Faulkner’s ability to score from the perimeter and Lillis’s strong play on the interior, the tandem has become one of the most formidable one-two punches in the Big Ten.
Lillis (16.1 ppg) and Faulkner (15.7 ppg) are currently the fourth and sixth leading scorers, respectively, in the country, and each has increased her scoring average in Iowa’s conference games. While Lillis is scoring 16.7 ppg in Iowa’s Big Ten matchups, Faulkner has increased her scoring output to 17.7 ppg.
Although Faulkner finds most of her scoring opportunities while penetrating to the hoop and Iowa’s guards like to try and pound the ball into Lillis as much as they can, the Hawkeyes have gained a reputation for launching the long ball.
Iowa has knocked down at least one three-pointer in each of its last 138 games, a streak that has occurred over the span of six seasons. The last time the Hawkeyes failed to connect on a trey dates back to their March 1, 1998, matchup with Purdue in the Big Tournament.
Their most consistent three-point shooting threat is point guard April Calhoun, who has connected on better than 35 percent of her attempts from beyond the arc.
Calhoun, a native of New Hope, Minn., has done an excellent job of distributing the ball as well. The 5-foot-8 sophomore currently ranks first on the team and ranks sixth in the Big Ten with 98 assists (4.26 apg).
Calhoun and Iowa are in the same boat as Wisconsin as far as their postseason aspirations go. Both teams must win the Big Ten tournament to earn an NCAA tournament bid. If UW seniors Kristi Seeger and Leah Hefte hope to pick up a win in the final home game of their respective careers, they, as well as the rest of the Badgers, had better bring their “A” game on Sunday.
