The Wisconsin women’s basketball team jumped out to an early lead and battled Pepperdine to overtime but couldn’t hold on as the Waves swept the Thanksgiving Classic title away from the Badgers with a 76-67 win Saturday night.
UW junior Emily Ashbaugh converted on a three-point play with 27 seconds left to send the game into overtime at 65-65, but Pepperdine out-scored the Badgers 11-2 in the extra session.
“It was an incredible effort physically and mentally,” coach Jane Albright said. “In the last eight days, our team has improved greatly. We are not the team we want to be by any means, but we have proven we are a team that’s capable of getting better and cutting down on our mental mistakes.”
The scouting report for Pepperdine stated that in order to beat the Waves, the Badgers must control the tempo and that the first five minutes were critical. The Badgers took that to heart, jumping to a 10-2 lead with 15 minutes left in the first half. That was the largest lead of the game for either opponent until midway through the second half, when the Waves led 44-36 with 13:51 remaining.
The Waves stormed back from the early 10-2 deficit to tie the game at 14-14. The game remained close, and the Badgers’ largest lead late in the first half came at 30-25 on an Ashley Josephson trey, but Pepperdine came right back and answered with its own three-pointer. The teams entered the break at 30-28.
Pepperdine came out firing in the second half and opened the second stanza with a 16-6 run to give the Waves the 44-36 lead with 13:51 left. But the Badgers battled back and tied the game at 46-46, the eighth tie of the game, on a Stephanie Rich bucket from beyond the arc. The game was tied four more times before the 13th and final tie of regulation at 65-65.
The Waves took control in overtime behind Shandrika Lee, who converted on a layup and drew a blocking foul to tally the first three points of the extra session. Missing senior Leah Hefte due to injury, the Badgers, who had four players play 39 minutes or more, simply ran out of gas in the final session.
“You can see how our shooting percentage went down in the second half and overtime,” Albright said. “I think we were exhausted. Everybody gave everything they could.”
Ashbaugh and Kristi Seeger led the way for the Badgers with double-doubles. Ashbaugh tallied 13 points and 12 boards, while Seeger, who was named to the all-tournament team, registered 12 points and 11 rebounds. Ebba Gebisa had a near double-double with 14 points and nine boards, while Rich scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds. The Waves’ Lee was named tournament MVP, scoring 30 points against the Badgers.
“There were some extremely positive things,” Albright said. “Out-rebounding a team 59-28 is just a lot of great board effort. Getting to the free-throw line 20 times in very adverse conditions and making 18 was important.”
Friday night, the team earned its first win of the 2002-03 season with a 58-49 win after overcoming a halftime deficit and a late surge by Texas-Arlington. Neither team led by more than seven points until the final minute, and the Badgers (1-2) and Lady Mavericks (1-2) battled every moment of the way until the Badgers ran away with victory with a 9-0 run in the final two minutes.
“Our offensive execution was exceptional down the stretch,” Albright said. “When we needed to score, they executed exactly what we asked them do to. They did gel down the stretch and played like we know they can play and have seen in practice.”
Albright called a 30-second timeout with 2:04 left, and the Badgers capitalized, scoring on their set play right out of the break. Ashbaugh sent the inbounds pass back to Seeger to put UW up 50-47, which started a nine-point run for the Badgers.
“Those two individuals (Seeger and Ashbaugh) had exceptional performances,” Albright said. “Seeger was six of seven, played a lot of minutes and was very heady. Ashbaugh had 13 points, seven boards and five assists in 22 minutes. She had some touch calls as far as fouls, but I really thought she was the strongest and headiest she’s been for us.”
Ashbaugh and Seeger led the way for the Badgers with 13 points apiece, season highs for both players. Rich added a career-high nine points, and Josephson tied her career-high eight points. Ashbaugh and Lello Gebisa tallied seven rebounds apiece for UW. Wisconsin shot 52 percent for the game, compared to Texas-Arlington’s 35 percent shooting.
— compiled from staff reports
