Coming off its toughest outing of the season, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (7-2, 0-1) is looking forward to completing its six-game road trip Friday against the Marquette Golden Eagles (6-2) at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee.
After a second-half collapse erased a spirited first-half effort Sunday against No. 2-ranked Ohio State, Wisconsin is eager to rebound with a victory. Of late, the Badgers have seen stout competition away from the Kohl Center, as they will have played six road games in 15 days after Friday.
Against the Golden Eagles, the Badgers will look to improve to 2-1 against the state’s Division I teams.
“What Marquette’s going to bring to us is an in-state rivalry from the Big East Conference,” Wisconsin head coach Lisa Stone said. “They’re going to really try to pound it in high-low, they’re going to mix up their defenses to try to keep us off-kilter, and it’s going to be a very, highly intense game.”
So far, the Badgers have been impressive away from Madison. Sunday’s game in Columbus was the team’s first road loss and put Wisconsin at 5-1 for the season in road and neutral-site games.
“There’s a ton of good things to take from that game,” Stone said of the Ohio State loss. “We walked in there, there was not one flicker of intimidation on our faces. Our players were very confident; they understood the game plan. … I’m just really pleased with our team.
“The eight minutes that we didn’t play unified, on offense or on defense, is when a team of Ohio State’s nature will take advantage of that.”
Riding a two-game win streak, including an 81-41 rout of New Jersey Institute of Technology on Dec. 3, Marquette is carrying some momentum.
Led by junior guard Angel Robinson — the team’s scoring leader with 11.4 points per game — and sophomore forward Jessica Pachko, Marquette averages 65.2 points per game. Against Illinois Wednesday, Robinson put in a season-high 32 points.
While Wisconsin has averaged 62 points per game thus far, the Badgers are facing questions regarding their recent offensive performances.
UW has not reached 60 points since a 75-point outburst Nov. 27 against Portland State at the World Vision Invitational in Eugene, Ore. While Wisconsin is 4-1 in that span, the heart of the Big Ten schedule is right around the corner and will surely call for stronger offensive production.
“We can definitely score more points,” sophomore forward and tri-captain Anya Covington said. “That’s our plan right now, we’re working on that. Don’t be surprised, the next couple games, we might score more points, because we’re working on that. But our primary focus is defense.”
Senior guard Teah Gant, who is fourth on the team with 7.7 points per game, echoed Covington’s confidence in the offense.
“To me, I think if we win, we’re good,” Gant said. “It is important to put points on the board and have a good field goal percentage. Mostly, that revolves around taking good shots, and I think that’s been a key focus for us since the beginning of the season — not taking quick shots, not letting teams speed us up and just playing our own game.
“Scoring, it’s a big deal, but we’re more focused on our defense and not letting other teams score 60-plus points.”
Obviously, it comes down to defense for the Badgers.
A staple of essentially all UW sports, Stone’s squad is no different. Despite the recent decline in offensive production, the Wisconsin coach insists no changes are coming for either the roster or the system.
“Do I think we’re capable of scoring? Yes, but not at the result of bad defense,” Stone said. “We are a defensive team first; we spend the majority of our time on defense, but I really think that offensively, we’re getting better and better, and we hope to see more points on the board.”
