[media-credit name=’AJ Maclean’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The Wisconsin women’s basketball team answered a Southern Illinois scare and cruised to its second-straight win, 82-53, Monday night. With the win, Wisconsin starts the season 2-0 for the first time in five years; Southern Illinois was sent packing with its third loss in as many games.

Southern Illinois converged on the post early on, forcing Wisconsin’s Jordan Wilson into an offensive foul and a jump ball. With the Badgers clinging to a 10-8 lead just minutes into the game, the game looked like it might be a close one. But a 23-10 Badger run — mostly predicated by offensive rebounding — brought the score to 33-18 with 7:03 remaining in the first half.

Four Badger freshmen played key parts in the decisive run, as guards Jolene Anderson and Janese Banks both nailed 3-pointers, center Danielle Ward added two rebound baskets, and forward Shari’ Welton finished off a Stephanie Rich tip away to give Wisconsin some breathing room.

Danette Jones sank two 3-point tries, and guard Daphne Desamours drove the lane and was fouled to keep Southern Illinois within 12 points at the break at 41-29.

In the second half, Wisconsin used a 14-0 run to take control of the game.

Jordan Wilson found some room in the post, scoring off feeds from Rich and Anderson. Rich then nailed two 3-pointers and Anderson scored off a running one-hander to give the Badgers a 55-29 lead and administer the knock-out punch.

“I’m pleased with our team’s response to the second-half start,” head coach Lisa Stone said. “We made an adjustment at halftime, which was effective because it took them a while to score in the second half.”

Desamours hit two free throws with 13:20 remaining in the game for the Salukis’ first points of the second half. From then on, the Salukis could never get the lead below 23 points. The Badgers opened up their biggest lead at 31 points, 82-51, with a little more than one minute remaining in the game off an Ebba Gebisa jumper.

Wisconsin was once again led by Jolene Anderson, who notched 17 points, six rebounds and two steals in the game. She paced three other Badgers in double figures. Stephanie Rich added 13 points, while dishing out a team-high nine assists. Jordan Wilson chipped in 12 points off some steady post play, and center Danielle Ward scored a career-high 11 points and pulled down nine key rebounds in just 15 minutes of action.

Southern Illinois was led by senior forward Danette Jones’ 16 points; point guard Daphne Desamours also had 16, including sinking eight of 10 shots from the free-throw line.

The Badgers were able to get 71 shots at the basket, as a result of 51 rebounds, 29 coming on the offensive end. Southern Illinois did establish a new Kohl Center record — though not the milestone they were hoping for — as it pulled down only 17 rebounds total throughout the game.

“That’s huge for us,” Rich said. “We were able to get rebounds and get them out to the point guard and look cross court and run our transition the way we did.”

With every player seeing action once again, and nine showing up in the point column, coach Stone remains optimistic heading into The Houston Tournament, where the Badgers will face Houston and Middle Tennessee State this weekend.

“Now it’s time to lock down and look at some film and get ready for a big test on Friday,” Stone said.