After posting two impressive wins over the weekend, the Wisconsin women's basketball team is ready to jam in paradise as the team heads to Hawaii to compete in the Hawaii tournament.
"Our goal is to keep this momentum going," head coach Lisa Stone said. "We need to still stay with the defensive focus … we allowed Cleveland State and Houston to get to the middle, to reverse the ball more times than we wanted, to get the ball inside and we got out-hustled a little yesterday I thought. So although we won the game and that's great, we had some sluggish moments on the defensive end."
UW defeated Houston 77-54 Friday night, and then dominated Cleveland State 84-59 Sunday. However, the Badgers are looking to keep the momentum going away from the Kohl Center. Wisconsin finished last season 9-5 at home and 2-9 on the road. Stone's squad hopes to erase the last year's road games woes by winning all three games at the Hawaii tournament.
First up for Wisconsin is Idaho State. The Bengals lost their opening contest Friday to Boise State 91-89 in double overtime.
Included in the Bengals starting lineup are returning Big Sky freshman of the year Natalie Doma and senior Chelsey Chambers. In the loss against Boise State, Chambers had a double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Century Club:
Stone is excited about the level of talent at which her team will get to cut its teeth against on the road.
"I think the brackets are terrific, when you look at who we play in Idaho State who went into double overtime yesterday to Boise State and scored 91 points," Stone said. "[It's in] a lot of ways very comparable to the Santa Clara game we had last year that was a track meet and a shootout."
That game against Santa Clara a year ago was the only time Wisconsin reached the century mark in points in a 104-91 victory. Wisconsin may want to slow down the pace a bit, seeing as it has three games in three days in the humid environment of Hawaii.
But strong play thus far from the Badger bench will allow Stone to deploy her entire roster.
"It's something we have been looking for obviously in the past couple of years and our bench has provided us a tremendous spark," she said. "It's important that we close the door and win the game but it's also important that we go to our bench, keep people fresh and try to wear teams down."
Banking it:
If the Badgers are to be successful this weekend, they will need to heavily rely on assist and scoring leader Janese Banks.
"I compare Janese to Alando Tucker," Stone said. "I thought that when you have the capabilities physically to back up a leadership role. From verbal support of teammates to backing it up on the court to huddling the team together and just bringing the effort and the energy every day, Janese does that for us."
In the two games over the weekend, Banks scored 36 points and had eight assists.
Ranking it:
The only ranked team in the field of eight is No. 18 DePaul. The possibility of playing DePaul is something Stone has not only anticipated, but is looking forward to.
"Doug Bruno [DePaul head coach] and I talked this summer when we were at recruiting and for the two of us it would be fun to meet in the championship game," Stone said.
For the two teams to meet, Wisconsin will have to defeat Idaho State, and then beat either Washington State or Hawaii. That rigorous schedule of competition combined with the Hawaiian heat will test the Badgers from the opening tip Friday night.
"All 11 players know they're going to get a shot," Stone said. "They're going get to play and we're deeper. Physically we are in tremendous condition and we need to display that this weekend."
