On a day when both teams shot poorly, the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team made shots when it counted, outlasting Kentucky 49-45 in the second round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
Sophomore forward Tara Steinbauer led the Badgers with a career-high 18 points and eight rebounds and senior center Caitlin Gibson chipped in with eight points and five rebounds. Alyssa Karel and Teah Gant added eight and seven points, respectively.
For the day, Wisconsin shot only 31.7 percent from the field, including only 27.6 percent in the first half. However, Kentucky shot even worse than the Badgers. The Wildcats shot only 27.5 percent, including a 21.5 percent mark in the first half. Eleia Roddy and Carly Ormerod led Kentucky with 11 points apiece.
“Offensively, we got really good looks, but the ball just wasn’t going in the basket,” Wisconsin coach Lisa Stone said. “It was only a matter of time. When we got down by seven, we didn’t bail, we continued to fight and got great contributions from Tara and Caitlin.”
After two weeks off, the Badgers appeared to be very rusty offensively in the first half, turning the ball over six times and scoring only 19 points. In fact, starting guards Karel and Rae Lin D’Alie shot a combined 3 of 24 from the field.
“Before the game, Coach [Stone] was saying it was 15 days since we played a game so I definitely think that at the beginning you saw some rust from us,” Steinbauer said. “Thankfully, it wore off and I think it was a good team effort all around today.”
Despite their poor offensive play; as has been the case this entire year, it was Wisconsin’s defense that won them the game.
“I think the shots were good. We had really good looks — from layups to some free throws in the first half to some ‘point-blankers’ and they didn’t go in,” Stone said. “But our defense is going to keep us in every game.”
After shooting poorly early on, it was the Badgers’ clutch play down the stretch that enabled them to advance to the next round of the tournament.
Down 30-23 with 11:40 left, Wisconsin finally began to get into a rhythm offensively. The Badgers regained the lead 34-32 with a Steinbauer layup and never looked back. Kentucky cut the lead to 47-45 with only 12 seconds left, but Steinbauer was able to convert on two free throws to ice the game.
“I don’t think we ever got nervous, it was just a matter of turning around our mentality,” Steinbauer said. “Coach said that our defense has always been our identity and I think that that was just something we had to get back to. As soon as she said that, we came down, had a great defensive possession, and I think that was when things really started to turn around for us.”
Gibson played a significant amount of time after sophomore forward Lin Zastrow went down with an ankle injury in the first half. After not having seen much playing time this year, Gibson said she was glad to be back out on the court.
“It was fun to be out there. I played Kentucky my sophomore year when we hosted them here so it was good to see a couple of the same girls,” Gibson said. “When Lin went down I knew it wasn’t a joke because she got a little teary-eyed and she usually doesn’t do that. I was ready to go in and I did the best I could and we came out with the win.”
Zastrow was injured trying to collect a rebound in the first half and needed help getting off the court. Stone said Zastrow’s health will be day-to-day, though it’s not known if she will play in the next round of the tournament.
