A lot of weight was lifted off the shoulders of the UW women’s basketball players Thursday night at the Kohl Center. After a disastrous six-game losing streak, the Badgers finally snapped out of it with an 80-47 win over Northwestern.
The big win couldn’t have come at a better time for Wisconsin, since the game took place on Senior Night. It was the last game Tamara Moore, Jessie Stomski, Kyle Black, and Sarah Jirovec played on the Kohl Center floor — and what a way to go out.
“Obviously, it was a very fun night for us,” UW head coach Jane Albright said, alluding to the emotion and joy the seniors exuded in their final home game.
The game started appropriately enough, with Stomski and Moore scoring the first two Badger baskets, but the Wildcats were able to hang around, keeping the score at 13-12 in UW’s favor with 10:48 left in the first half.
“Senior Nights can be challenging because, as you saw, for the first four or five minutes of the game I thought we were a little emotional and a little tentative,” said Albright. “Then I think it settled down, and we played the kind of basketball that we looked to play.”
Stomski, one of the best players to ever don a Badger uniform, was largely responsible for getting the Badgers settled down. Swatting away Wildcat defenders like flies, she notched 18 of the Badgers’ 39 first-half points, the critical ones coming in a 19-5 UW run midway through the first half, staking the Badgers to a 32-16 lead they would never really come close to relinquishing.
Stomski closed out her superb home career with 24 points and seven rebounds, but it was her game-high seven assists she was most proud of.
“[The assists] make me feel good because I usually rely on a lot of people to give me assists,” she said. “So when I’m able to do that for my teammates, it makes me feel really good.”
Northwestern (4-20, 0-13 Big Ten) tried valiantly to make a comeback, led by freshman center Sarah Kwasinski’s 15 points, but in a game that at times became very rugged, the Badgers’ trapping and pressing defense would not allow the comeback to happen.
All in all, Wisconsin’s intense defense forced 21 turnovers, 13 of them Badger steals, leading to an amazing 34 points.
“We’ve really been working a lot on our rotation,” said Albright. “I thought our post defense was exceptional tonight, and that’s something that we’ve really worked on. I think we looked quick again.”
The Wildcats were also held to a dismal 30 percent shooting.
“I don’t know if there’s much paint left on that rim,” Northwestern head coach June Olkowski said.
Moore played the great all-around game that basketball fans have become so accustomed to in her tenure, totaling 19 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals.
Black chipped in with nine points, including a crowd-raising step-back three-pointer, a shot with which she has left her mark on the Badger basketball program, with 15:55 to play in the game.
But perhaps the best moment for a Badger senior was for reserve center and fan-favorite Jirovec, who brought the crowd to its feet with a basket toward the end of the game. Her ovation was second only to the thunderous standing ovation the four seniors received when they were taken out of a home game for the last time, with 2:32 to play.
While Thursday night’s game represented a sense of finality for the Wisconsin seniors, the season is far from being final. The Badgers (17-7, 8-6 Big Ten) still have the most important part of the schedule lying ahead.
Although they are out of the running for a the Big Ten regular season title, they know the Big Ten Tournament title and a good run in the NCAA Tournament are well within their grasp if they can return to their formerly dominating selves. Thursday night was a good start.
“I think that we showed the emotion tonight that will fuel a postseason run,” Stomski said
