After an agonizing 88-65 defeat at Iowa State Sunday, the Badgers are happy to be playing in front of their home crowd for the first time since before Thanksgiving break.

After dropping all four road contests to potential NCAA opponents, Wisconsin (2-4) will welcome UW-Milwaukee to the Kohl Center Wednesday night for the first leg of a four-game homestand.

In all four of their losses, the Badgers were able to stay with their opponents through the first half. Wisconsin even led Iowa State with over seven minutes to go in the first half, but — after a hot shooting start — fell cold, allowing the Cyclones to take control of the game. The Badgers shot 40 from the field percent for the game, but allowed the Cyclones to shoot 50 percent. Cyclone forward Katie Robinette, who notched a career-high with 30 points, was effective in drawing Wisconsin into a season-high 30 fouls, in which two players were disqualified from action.

“We have to get better defensively,” UW head coach Lisa Stone said. “There’s no doubt about it. It’s not the plays or necessarily the players. It’s that we have to lock down on defense much, much better and get stops.”

For the first time since the 1998 season, the Badgers will face all three in-state schools (Marquette, UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee). The Panthers bring a 2-4 record into Wednesday’s matchup and have been struggling to find consistency so far this season. UW-Milwaukee head coach Sandy Botham has been trying to fill the void left by the graduation of center Maria Viall, who was named the Horizon League Player of the Year a season ago — posting 18.2 points and 10.9 rebounds per game.

Though it is already early December, the Panthers have yet to play a game on their home court at the Klotsche Center. Like the Badgers, the Panthers fell at Marquette, losing 74-66. The Panthers also lost at DePaul, Washington and Northern Iowa. Their sole wins came against Columbia and Oakland (MI).

Leading the Panther attack is junior forward Nicole Drummond, who averages 13.5 points per game while shooting a team-best 90 percent from the free-throw line. Senior forward Terri Huff is averaging 13.2 points and 5.3 rebounds this season, while senior center Kimberly Becker has added 10.3 points and pulled down a team-best six rebounds per game since replacing Viall at the center spot.

“They gave us a game last year here, there’s no question,” Stone said. “And they’ll come after us — play very, very tough, half-court defense — try to take us out of our comfort level, try to put a little bit more ball pressure on maybe our backcourt to keep it out of the inside.”

The Panthers, like the Badgers, are small in the post and will rely on efficient outside shooting; they have attempted an average of 19.7 threes per game in just six games, but have only converted 30 percent of their attempts from behind the arc.

Almost all of the 11 Badger players have seen action throughout every game so far this season, but for Stone the starting lineup can change depending upon what players are playing well or what the opponent brings to the table.

“I think if you look at Annie Nelson’s play as of late, she certainly deserved (to start), and she’s been a calming force, very consistent performer for us,” Stone said.

In the past two games, junior Annie Nelson has started at forward over senior Ebba Gebisa. Nelson, who played only 91 minutes total throughout her first two years, has already surpassed that in just six games this season. Against Marquette, Nelson earned her first start and posted a career-high with seven points. She bettered that against Iowa State in leading the Badger in scoring with 13 points.

With leading scorer Jolene Anderson (who’s averaged 18.4 points per game prior to Sunday’s game) feeling under the weather and scoring just two points, other players were forced to step up and contribute against the Cyclones.

“I think the games that we’ve played and the places we’ve played and the opponents that we played, we’re going to see similar teams in the Big Ten, so, if we can learn from these things, it was worth it,” Stone said. “We want to continue to get better. And the team is willing to do whatever it takes.”