The Wisconsin women's basketball team, led by explosive junior guards Jolene Anderson and Janese Banks, coasted to yet another double-digit victory at home Sunday as they defeated Albany (2-7) 75-46.
Anderson scored a season-high 28 points (on 11-of-19 from the field) to complement her four assists. It was the 27th time she scored more than 20 points as a Badger, the fourth time this season.
"Don't let her looks fool you," noted Albany head coach Trina Patterson of Anderson. "She can put it in the basket. You don't think that she can score, then you look down and she has 30. She's just a good scorer, and she has a great future ahead of her."
Anderson also tied her career best with six steals Sunday.
"[It was just] being in the right place at the right time," Anderson said of her extraordinary defensive performance. "I was just trying to get in the passing lanes and make it difficult for [Albany] to get open on the wing. Some of [the passes] looked like they were just floating, and so I just made a stab at it and went for it."
Banks notched her first double-double of the season, tallying 13 points while collecting a game-high 12 rebounds. She also tied Anderson for a game-high four assists.
The Badgers out-rebounded the Great Danes 50-27 in all, while giving up only five offensive rebounds to the women from New York.
"I think that one of the things we like to emphasize a lot is rebounding," Banks noted. "It may not seem like it at times, but I think a lot of us do try and concentrate on always rebounding."
The emergence of freshmen point guards Rae Lin D'Alie and Sarah Ingison has allowed Banks to play the two guard, a position she feels more comfortable playing.
"When you're more comfortable, you get to take more chances with rebounding," Banks said.
Rebounding was not the only impressive defensive statistic the Badgers accumulated Sunday, as they also forced 20 turnovers, had nine steals, four blocks, and held the Great Danes to a mere 34 percent shooting from the field.
The Badgers reached the 10-win plateau in only 11 games this season, as they shattered the previous mark of 21 games (2004-05) during head coach Lisa Stone's four-year tenure.
"It sounds great to be undefeated at home," Stone said after the game. "At this great place here, we need to do that. We owe it to our fans to play and win games, and we've done a good job of that so far."
Six of UW's seven home victories have come in double-digit fashion. They edged out Western Michigan 80-77 Nov. 14.
The Badgers had 22 assists in all Sunday, but unfortunately, some sloppy play on the offensive end of the court led to 22 turnovers as well.
"[We] got a little careless with the basketball," Stone noted. "We all committed a turnover. I think everybody that played got one, except Ericka (Engen). We need to take care of the ball."
D'Alie and Banks were the guilty parties, committing six and four turnovers, respectively.
"When we start playing better defenses in the Big Ten, we can't have that many turnovers," Banks added.
Despite the final score being as lopsided as it was, Albany stuck with Wisconsin for much of the game.
"We give Albany a lot of credit," Stone praised. "They hung in there. They used a lot of timeouts in the first half and as many as they could in the second half to try and stay in it. They made us play a little ugly. We were tentative, and obviously they made us turn the ball over, and that's something that we'll certainly discuss before Wednesday."
