After falling to the bottom of the Big Ten standings with four straight losses, the UW women’s basketball team (7-7, 2-3) has won two straight games to reach the .500 mark for the first time since Jan. 2 and has improved to ninth in the conference.
Despite an early scare, the Badgers defeated the Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne Mastodons (5-10) 75-59 Friday.
“It didn’t have to be as much of a struggle as it was, but it was a matter of us getting some confidence,” head coach Lisa Stone said. “I’ll take the ‘W’ and continue to believe in this basketball team and our capabilities.”
The Mastodons came out firing and took a 7-0 lead as the Badgers missed their first five shot attempts. Stone went to the bench early, bringing in center Emily Ashbaugh and forward Kjersten Bakke.
Ashbaugh, coming off the bench for the second time this season after starting the first 12 games of the year, scored eight of the Badgers’ first 17 points to lead a 15-6 run that gave the Badgers a 2-point lead midway through the first half. Energized by Ashbaugh’s strong start, the Badgers went on a 16-2 run and never looked back.
“[IPFW] is a team that is just going to come at you,” guard Stephanie Rich said. “They’re not going to fold. They played pretty good, they’re scrappy, but this is just a good, quality win for us.”
The Badgers recorded a season-high 23 assists, and matched their season highs in field goals (27), free throws (15) and blocks (8). Rich posted her first double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 assists, and center Lello Gebisa scored a season-high 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to record her third double-double of the year. Guard Ashley Josephson, who leads the team in scoring with 11.7 points per game, set a career high with 20 points.
“She was in a zone, in a rhythm,” Stone said of Josephson.
Beating the Mastodons wrapped up a productive break for the Badgers. Following a 1-point loss to No. 8 Penn State Jan. 11, UW earned a convincing 66-57 victory over Illinois (7-9, 1-4) Jan. 13.
“I’m very proud of our basketball team,” Stone said. “They came to play after a tough game against Penn State. [The team] carried over the courage, the character, the heart, the will to win.”
Wisconsin dominated down low, out-scoring the Illini 34-18 in the paint and posting a 41-29 rebounding edge against the top rebounding team in the Big Ten. The Badgers also committed a season-low 12 turnovers and demonstrated a balanced attack, with five players scoring in double figures for the first time this season.
“It was a great team effort,” Stone said. “The team has worked very hard for this first step, and we hope this is one of many to come.”
Leading the way for the Badgers was Rich, who posted 18 points, seven assists, and four rebounds and shot 4-6 from 3-point range.
“It was a good night tonight shooting-wise,” Rich said. “It hasn’t been like that all year.”
After playing an instrumental role in the Badgers’ loss to No. 8 Penn State, forward Jordan Wilson moved into the starting lineup against Illinois, replacing Ashbaugh. Both players performed well; Wilson pulled down nine rebounds and Ashbaugh recorded 10 points and six boards.
“Jordan Wilson knows a lot of these players from summer basketball, and her challenge to play against Cindy Dallas, the top rebounder in the conference, really inspired Jordan,” Stone said. “I think it worked out perfectly for us, and Emily [Ashbaugh] responded with great confidence and stayed after it. I was very pleased with both Jordan and Emily’s response to the change.”
Needing a turnaround game after a brutal road trip in which the Badgers suffered a 16-point loss to No. 20 Boston College (12-2, 2-1), a 19-point loss to No. 22 Ohio State (10-5, 2-2) and a 21-point loss to Indiana (8-7, 1-3), the Badgers made a statement in a 60-59 loss against No. 8 Penn State (12-3, 5-0), taking the game down to the wire against the second-ranked team in the Big Ten.
“I was relatively emotional as a coach after [the loss to Indiana], just because I know their capabilities, I know they all care about each other, they care about their coaches, and they want to win,” Stone said. “It was a speed bump and a nightmare and it’s over. Going into Penn State, in the back of my mind was that this is a test of what we’re made of. How tough are we? Can we respond? And we certainly did. What I know about these players was demonstrated in that game.”
In their first home conference game of the year, the Badgers started slow and Penn State jumped out to an 8-0 lead. With aggressive offensive rebounding and a stifling full-court press, the Lady Lions frustrated the Badgers and increased their lead to 16 points.
Then the Badgers came alive. Sparked by a pair of 3-pointers from Josephson, the Badgers closed out the half on a 20-13 run to cut the deficit to 9 points.
Wisconsin’s inspired play continued as the Badgers cut the Lions’ lead to 2 points midway through the second half. Penn State answered with a 9-0 run that pushed the lead to 11, but again the Badgers fought back.
The Gebisa sisters led a late run, as Ebba knocked down a 3-pointer and Lello added a layup to bring the Badgers within 5 points with less than one minute to play. Wisconsin cut the lead to 2 on another 3-pointer from Ebba, but Penn State standout Kelly Mazzante, who is just 8 points shy of the Big Ten women’s basketball career scoring record, calmly sank a pair of free throws to give the Lions a 4-point lead with 0:14 to play. Lello knocked down a 3-pointer in the final seconds to cut the deficit to 1 point, but the Badgers could not complete the comeback, falling 60-59.
“Our comeback, our ‘never say die, never say quit’ attitude is a great step in the right direction for this program,” Stone said. “To come back from double digits down playing against the caliber team of Penn State demonstrates our capabilities as a basketball team.”
