[media-credit name=’AJ MACLEAN/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]In the midst of a four-game losing streak, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (6-9, 1-5) will step out of conference play for a week to host Cleveland State (2-14) in its final non-conference game of the season tonight at the Kohl Center.

“In an ideal world you want to stay in your conference season,” UW head coach Lisa Stone said. “The best thing for us right now is to get back on the court. I’d rather be playing a game than sitting idle for a week.”

The Badgers, who held a 5-4 record going into final exams, have dropped five of their last six games to open the Big Ten season. Included in those five defeats were losses to three nationally ranked opponents in Purdue, Minnesota and Michigan State. Their lone conference win came at Northwestern 62-60.

With Stone and the Badgers still struggling to find some consistency on offense, the contest against the Vikings provides a brief retreat from the demanding conference schedule. The matchup with the Vikings will pit the Badgers against former UW assistant coach Kate Peterson, who assisted under Jane Albright from 1997-2003. Peterson, who was also responsible for overseeing recruiting duties, helped sign two top-10-ranked recruiting classes. After Albright resigned in February of 2003, Peterson took the Cleveland State job, where she posted a 12-16 record during her first year.

Alongside Peterson in the Cleveland State coaching staff is former Badger guard Kyle Black Rechlicz, who will also make a return trip to the Kohl Center, where she was a standout 3-point specialist during her four years at UW.

“It will be a special moment for them,” Stone said of Peterson and Rechlicz. “On the other hand, it’s really about us and our basketball team and our abilities to clean up some things that we need to and make adjustments.”

Still known as Kyle Black during her UW playing days, Rechlicz ranks second all-time in the Badger record books for most 3-point field goals made (191) and third in 3-point percentage (36.5 percent).

Badger seniors Stephanie Rich and Ebba Gebisa played one season with Black as freshmen, in which Wisconsin rose to a No. 5 ranking in the AP poll with a 16-1 record before dropping 11 of their final 14 games. Peterson helped bring both the current Badger junior and senior classes to Madison, so a reunion will be in store before the two teams tip-off Thursday night. However, both Black and Peterson will likely have other things on their minds before the final buzzer sounds as both are still trying to figure how to hoist Cleveland State back up to the top of the Horizon League, where last year they set a school record with nine conference wins.

Currently, the Vikings are in danger of finishing well below last season’s mark but have managed to stay close in several games before finally being dealt the knockout punch. In games decided by 10 points or fewer, the Vikings are 2-5 this season. Cleveland State’s Achilles heel all season has been sub-par scoring production. The Vikings average only 58.4 points per game while giving up 74.3 points to the opposition, good for last in the Horizon League.

Last season the Badgers had the same problem, mustering just 57.3 points a contest, but this season, thanks to freshman Jolene Anderson’s 18.1 points per game, the Badgers are averaging more than 70 points a game.

Like the Badgers, the Vikings are young and inexperienced, with only two starters returning from last year’s team. One of them, junior guard Erin Martin, is the Vikings’ only double-figure scorer with 12.4 points per game. Martin also leads the team in assists, with 2.7 dishes per game, and steals, with just more than two per game.

The other returning starter is senior forward Maria Richards, who averages 4.8 points per game. Another of the team’s four seniors, Mandy Sichting, is the Vikings’ tallest player at 6-foot-3. Sichting contributes 8.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, while shooting a team-best 53.4 percent from the field.

Wisconsin leads Cleveland State in nearly every statistical category, including owning a 2-1 record in the overall series. Despite being a heavy favorite, however, Wisconsin will have to get out of the gates quickly and try to put their recent losses behind them against the struggling Vikings.