Following a devastating overtime road loss to Penn State, the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team will have to regroup quickly Sunday as they travel to East Lansing, Mich., to take on the Michigan State Spartans.
“We know we’ve got a challenge ahead of us,” head coach Lisa Stone said following the Badgers’ victory Sunday over Illinois. “It’s very, very important that we go out there and take care of business.”
The Badgers knew their current road trip would be difficult, but they probably never imagined the first game would go the way it did. Despite leading by as many as 17 points, the Badgers allowed the Nittany Lions to reel off 19 unanswered in the second half, eventually sending the game into overtime.
In the extra period, junior guard Tyra Grant — who led all scorers with 32 points — hit a jumper in the lane as time expired to give Penn State the 58-56 victory.
Wisconsin (14-6, 4-5 Big Ten) will look to rebound from Thursday’s loss against one of the conference’s best teams in Michigan State.
Despite finishing the non-conference season with just a 7-4 record, Michigan State has impressed so far in Big Ten play, winning three of its first four conference road games.
“I think the conference is wide open, I really do,” Stone said. “I think as we go into the last 10 games of the season, the teams that start to really get it — that take care of the ball and find help from the bench or continue to play consistent — are going to be the teams that are going to be there in the end.”
Michigan State (13-6, 6-2) is led offensively by forward Aisha Jefferson, a redshirt junior, who averages 12.2 points per game. Against Big Ten opponents, junior center Allyssa DeHaan has emerged as the team’s leading scorer, averaging 13.4 points per game in conference play.
MSU ranks third in the Big Ten in both scoring offense and scoring defense, averaging 67.4 points per game while allowing just 56.1 points. UW is one of two teams above MSU in scoring defense, but the Badgers’ offense falls far short of the Spartans, averaging just 58.6 points per game.
Aside from Alyssa Karel, who leads the team with 13.2 points per game, Wisconsin will look for another strong game offensively from junior guard Teah Gant, who has emerged recently as a significant scoring threat for UW.
Gant, best known for her defensive play, has used her ability to drive to the hoop to relieve pressure from Karel and junior forward Mariah Dunham, the Badgers’ second leading scorer with 9.2 points per game.
“I think I just take what’s given to me, and you know, if you have Alyssa [Karel] on the wing getting denied, then that opens up a space for me to drive,” Gant said.
Not only has Gant emerged as another scorer for Wisconsin, but her presence on the court and ball-handling skills give the cardinal and white another option at point guard, something crucial in the tight games the Badgers have played lately.
“Teah is a calming force for us; she really is,” Stone said. “I think everybody would admit that she really keeps us patient and takes care of the ball and handles it very well.”
After an emotional loss against the Nittany Lions, the Badgers will need to put the game behind them and focus solely on the task at hand.
“The biggest thing is that we kind of forget what’s behind us, our success [and] our failures,” Karel said. “We can’t dwell or get too high on our wins or our losses. We’ve just got to keep looking forward.”
