Coming off a 75-66 victory over the UW-Milwaukee Panthers Wednesday, the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team (3-4) looks to continue its winning ways when it hosts the in-state rival UW-Green Bay Fighting Phoenix (6-1) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Kohl Center.
Prior to Wednesday night’s win against the Panthers, the Badgers had been on a skid, losing their four previous games all on the road. All of the Badgers’ wins have come at home this season, where the Badgers are 3-0.
The Phoenix enter the game in a reversal of positions. Green Bay suffered their first loss of the young season Wednesday night, when they fell to the 16th ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers, a preseason favorite to win the Big Ten, 60-51 in Green Bay. Prior to the loss the Phoenix had won six straight games, including a win over Marquette, who beat the Badgers earlier this season. The Phoenix are on the outside looking in on a spot in the national top 25 rankings, entering the game ranked 26th in the nation.
“They could be as strong as they’ve ever been — playing very, very well,” Badgers head coach Lisa Stone said.
Helping lead UW-Green Bay to its strong start has been a combination of an experienced corps of players and a blossoming group of youngsters that head coach Kevin Borseth has at his disposal. Borseth’s squad starts four seniors and one junior, yet finds most of its bench minutes from the likes of sophomores Nicole Soulis and Natalie Berglin and freshman Kayla Groh.
The experience possessed by the Phoenix could cause major problems for a young Badger squad, which sees five freshmen earning playing time. The experienced Phoenix defense has been stellar thus far this season, allowing only 53 points and causing 19 turnovers per game.
The Badgers, who are averaging 19 turnovers per game, need to find a way to limit their turnovers, which could quickly turn into easy buckets for the Phoenix. The Badgers will also need to continue with the balanced scoring attack that highlighted Wednesday night’s game against the Panthers. If the Badgers fall into a trap of relying too heavily on freshman guard Jolene Anderson for their scoring punch, the savvy Phoenix defense will take advantage.
Despite the defensive fortitude of the Phoenix, coach Stone believes that her team can match up with anyone offensively. However it’s been the defense she has been focusing on.
“Well, defensively, we’ll spend most of practice on defense tomorrow,” Stone said. “Right now it’s more about our half-court defense and getting stops. We’re matching basket for basket in times of pressure, and you can’t trade baskets. You need stops and big stops.”
Offensively, the Phoenix are led by senior forward Tiffany Mor. Mor had a career night against the Golden Gophers Wednesday, dropping 20 points on Minnesota. Her 15 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game and 22 total blocks are all tops on the team. But most impressively, Mor is shooting lights out for the season, hitting better than 60 percent of her field goal attempts.
UW-Green Bay’s backcourt is led by senior guard Abby Sharlow. Sharlow is tops on the team with 32 assists and 14 steals and is second on the team in scoring, putting up 13 points per game.
But while the Phoenix defense is keen on forcing turnovers, their offense rarely watches the ball go the wrong way. UW-Green Bay is averaging just over 11 turnovers a game, and enjoys a plus-7.1 average turnover margin edge.
With the many early challenges facing the Badgers squad early in the season, Coach Stone has turned to a fellow coach to help put this game and the remainder of the season in perspective.
“To coin the Bret Bielema phrase, of 1-and-0,” said Stone “(We need to) just focus on that, not where you’ve been or where you’re going, just where you are right now. And hopefully the team will grab onto that.”
