[media-credit name=’LEAH BELLACK/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]
In typical Big Ten grind-it-out fashion, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team defeated Drake 55-39 Thursday at the Kohl Center.
Despite starting slow in the first half, Wisconsin picked up its offense over the last 25 minutes of play to take control of the game, eventually putting it out of reach.
“I’m very proud of our basketball team,” UW head coach Lisa Stone said. “I thought we sustained a defensive system focus for all 40 minutes, did a much better job rebounding and then offensively, we did an outstanding job taking care of the basketball.”
Leading the way offensively was junior guard Rae Lin D’Alie with “13 points. Guard Alyssa Karel and forward Lin Zastrow — both sophomores — added ??11 points apiece.
More important for Wisconsin was its ability to limit itself to 12 turnovers, including just three in the second half. D’Alie, who had eight turnovers in the Badgers’ first game against South Dakota State, turned the ball over just twice Thursday after making a change in her mentality.
“[I] just made some adjustments in practice and got a great tip from one of my coaches and took it to heart and just got it done,” D’Alie said. “[They told me] ‘when there’s pressure up top, just drive and then stop, instead of just keep going and trying to force a pass.'”
Karel led the way early for the Badgers, scoring eight of her 11 points in the first half, shooting 3-for-7 from the field, including 2-for-4 from beyond the 3-point arc. Freshman Anya Covington also made some noise late in the half for UW, scoring four of her seven points and pulling down a pair of rebounds in the period.
“[Anya] learns and gets better every single day,” Stone said. “She is very active; she’s ready-made and she can be a beast down there, and that helps us because [Zastrow] can shoot the three.”
The Badgers finally seemed to take control of the game near the end of the first half as they finished on a 12-3 run to retake the lead from the Bulldogs and head into the locker room up nine at the half.
One of the keys to the Wisconsin offense was the ability of Covington and Zastrow to score in the post, opening things up for D’Alie and Karel and allowing the Badgers to start to taking control of the game.
“Once you start getting that post game, you start opening up a lot of stuff on the perimeter,” D’Alie said. “It takes the ball pressure off, especially when you have someone like Lin where they had to bring a triple team. It forces the guards that are on you to worry about that.”
The Badgers dominated the game in the second half, extending their lead to as much as 18 with 13:19 remaining while turning the ball over just three times in the period.
Wisconsin’s offense showed much improvement since its season opener Monday. Though the score may not show it, the players and coaches felt things were going much better offensively.
“Against SDSU you could just tell that our offense was stagnant and our defense wasn’t playing together,” Karel said. “Tonight it just felt a lot more flowing, a lot [easier]; we weren’t fighting pressure. We were just kind of taking what was open.”
Zastrow was a major contributor in the second half as the Badgers extended their lead, scoring all but two of her “?11 points in the period. Although Zastrow is usually one of the Badgers’ most unselfish players offensively, she seemed to gain some confidence in her own scoring ability after making a couple shots in the second half.
“[Lisa] has been telling me the whole time I’ve been here that I can score,” Zastrow said. “I think I just got to get it through my mind that I can do it and get over that lack of confidence.”
One problem present for the Badgers again Thursday was an inability to convert on its foul shots. After struggling from the line against South Dakota State, Wisconsin shot just 10-for-22 from the line against Drake, including 0-for-3 in the first half.
“There’s an area that really needs to be addressed and that’s our free-throw shooting,” Stone said. “That is something that can be fixed. You shoot free throws, you always do. We have to zone in and understand that 10-for-22 is not going to cut it from the free throw line.”
Up next for Wisconsin is a home matchup Sunday against Canisius College. The Golden Griffins (1-1) enter Sunday’s matchup following a 60-56 road loss Wednesday against St. Bonaventure.