Fresh off a down-to-the-wire 70-68 home victory over Cleveland State Sunday, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (3-0) will look to protect its undefeated record Tuesday night when it hosts in-state rival — and fellow unbeaten team — UW-Green Bay (3-0).
The Badgers can expect another tight contest from the Phoenix, who unsurprisingly were tabbed preseason favorites in the Horizon League, a conference they have won or shared the regular season title in for 11 consecutive years. For comparison, Cleveland State was picked to finish second in the Horizon League.
Despite losing four starters from last year’s 29-4 squad, the Phoenix have a remarkable track record to validate the preseason expectations — particularly of note, the school hasn’t seen a losing campaign since 1977-78.
“They have a tremendous tradition and reputation,” UW head coach Lisa Stone said. “They’re a very good team, whether they’re at home or on the road. … It doesn’t take motivation because this is an NCAA team we’re playing, and we’ve got to bring our best.”
The game between in-state rivals marks the second of three games in Wisconsin’s quest to sweep its in-state rivals for the second straight year. The team defeated UW-Milwaukee last Thursday, 64-55, and faces Marquette in Milwaukee on Dec. 11.
Because of last year’s sweep and Wisconsin’s status as the biggest school in the state, senior guard Rae Lin D’Alie said other Wisconsin schools always want to topple the Badgers.
“[With] in-state games, you got to come to play because they’re coming to play,” D’Alie said. “People refer to it as the ‘Badger State,’ and everybody [from other schools] wants to prove it’s not the ‘Badger State,’ and we want to prove we are. … It’s fun because you get a lot of fans out here that want to see a good, interstate rivalry.”
And although UWGB comes in undefeated and has won 20 plus games in 10 straight seasons, Wisconsin holds the all-time edge in the series, 19-6, including victories in the last two meetings, and four of the last five.
Additionally, tomorrow’s game will be an early test of the Badgers conditioning as the team will take the court just over 48 hours after a grueling, come-from-behind win over CSU. In that game, the Badgers trailed by as much as 15 before prevailing in the final minutes.
Junior forward Tara Steinbauer said the team doesn’t mind the schedule, however, which prepares the team for the grind of the Big Ten.
Steinbauer, one of four Badgers averaging double figure scoring — along with junior guard Alyssa Karel, D’Alie and junior forward Lin Zastrow — added Sunday’s win symbolized one way in which this year’s team has improved over last.
“We showed a lot of toughness in that second half,” she said. “I think the biggest thing we showed that’s been different from previous years is that we can change it around. A lot of times we would get in a slump, and it was kind of like we would stay in that slump, but I think we did a really good job of responding to what the coaches said at halftime.”
The Badgers will need that resilience against a Phoenix group that is outscoring opponents by 14 points a game, outrebounding them by nearly six per game and, like Wisconsin, features a starting lineup with four players that average over 10 points per game.
For one last measurement, the teams share one common opponent in the early nonconference season — North Dakota — which they both defeated by a sizable margin (UWGB by 18, Wisconsin by 25).
But, regardless of how evenly matched the teams are on paper, Stone said with two Wisconsin teams you can always expect a dogfight.
“Anytime, for an interstate rival you throw out the records, and you got to play because we’re going to get their best shot.”
