For a brief moment, it looked like Jacki Gulczynski had saved the Badgers.
For just a second, Gulczynski’s first basket of the game had bought her and her fellow seniors another game in their careers.
With 3.2 seconds remaining in the game and the Wisconsin women’s basketball team down two, she inbounded the ball to junior guard Tessa Cichy. After a scramble for the ball, Gulczynski emerged with it, pushed the ball up the court and heaved it at the basket.
It went in, and a referee signaled the shot was good.
But the referees decided to check to see if the shot actually left the senior forward’s hand on time. While the review lasted only a couple of minutes, it must’ve felt like hours.
No good, they said. Just like that, the Badgers’ season was over, falling 58-56 to Purdue.
And in a season filled with blown leads, missed opportunities and gut-wrenching defeats, it was only fitting that a matter of inches between Gulczynski’s fingers and the ball had a deciding factor in the conclusion of the team’s season.
After Cichy sunk a jumper to make it 51-42, the Badgers had established their largest lead of the game with 8:12 remaining. In the final eight minutes and 12 seconds, Purdue outscored Wisconsin 16-5.
But Purdue (11-19, 4-15 Big Ten) hung around and kept chipping away, eventually taking the lead with 2:43 left after a jumper from fifth-year senior Whitney Bays gave Purdue a 54-53 lead.
A few possessions later with no score change, junior guard Dakota Whyte made only the front-end of her one-and-one free throw attempts, tying the game at 54. Then, with 1:15 remaining, Bays sunk two free throws, putting Purdue up again.
With 9.7 seconds left, Whyte took a long pass from fellow junior guard Nicole Bauman and knocked down a jumper on the right wing, just inside the three-point line. Then, Purdue junior guard April Wilson took the ensuing inbound the length of the court and laid it in with 3.7 seconds to go, setting up Gulczynski’s final prayer attempt.
It was the only two points of the night for Wilson.
The loss spoiled an impressive defensive display from senior forward Cassie Rochel, who set a Big Ten tournament game record with seven blocks.
Whyte had a team-high 16 points, while Bauman was the only other Badger in double digits with 14.
Bays led the Boilermakers with 16 points, while senior forward Liza Clemons and sophomore guard Ashley Morrissette scored 12 points apiece.
The Badgers (9-20, 5-14 Big Ten) were lights-out in the first half, shooting 59.3 percent from the field, and took a 37-32 lead into the locker room after the first 20 minutes. The team shot 4-of-8 from three.
Bauman scored two of those three’s and finished the half with 10 points, while senior forward AnnMarie Brown provided seven points off the bench. Junior guard Tessa Cichy had seven of her nine points in the first half.
In the second half though, Wisconsin made just 33.3 percent of their attempts, finishing at 47.1 percent overall. Purdue shot 38.7 percent.
