Sifting through the box scores of the Wisconsin women’s basketball team’s 15-4 start, it appears Tara Steinbauer’s season has been up-and-down as much as the Dow Jones.

Since opening the 2009-10 campaign with her third career double-double, posting 10 points and 11 rebounds against North Dakota, Steinbauer has racked up three more double-doubles, narrowly missed that feat in a handful of others, and established herself as the Badgers’ second-leading scorer at a clip of 8.5 per game and leading glass-cleaner with 6.6 rebounds a contest.

Conversely, the junior forward from Kennedy High School in Bloomington, Minn., also has been a noticeable non-contributor in a number of matchups, including a two-point, zero-rebound performance in the team’s November loss to in-state rival UW-Green Bay, and an eight-point, three-rebound outing against conference-rival Illinois just over two weeks ago.

But in a crucial rematch against the Illini Sunday at the Kohl Center, Steinbauer’s season and individual development climaxed with an impressive 23-point, seven-rebound, one-steal outburst en route to the team’s 63-51 victory — a win that avenged a buzzer-beating loss to the blue and orange the first time the teams met.

Despite coming off a career-high scoring display, though, Steinbauer typically deflected praise. On this overcast day, however, Steinbauer was decidedly the Badgers’ most potent scoring threat.

She racked up nine first-half points before exploding for 14 in a foul-heavy second stanza, including her fourth three-pointer of the season (on just eight attempts) which swished through from the left corner early in the second frame to a raucous ovation from the season-high crowd of over 8,000.

More importantly, Steinbauer, commonly known as the team’s resident comedienne, sunk eight of her nine foul shots — a particularly clutch number considering Wisconsin as a team shot just 19-for-30, or roughly 63 percent.

“Free throw shooting will come around,” Coach Lisa Stone said, downplaying her team’s struggles at the charity stripe. “It’ll be fine. Tara was 8-for-9. I look at that one, that’s a good one. And it’s just that we did what we had to do, we grinded it out.”

Which, apparently, is what Steinbauer does best.

Facing a formidable three-pronged frontcourt attack from the Illini — one that features senior Jenna Smith, the Big Ten’s active career leader in points and rebounds, senior Lacey Simpson, who leads the conference in steals with more than four a game, and freshman Karisma Penn, a three-time recipient of Big Ten Freshman of the Week — Steinbauer stepped up her game, virtually neutralizing the Illini’s post presence by herself.

For the game, Steinbauer posted those 23 points in 33 minutes, compared to just 28 points in 105 combined minutes for the opponent’s big three.

Stone, echoing her star-of-the-day’s comments, said the variety of players who have emerged as contributors in different situations this season is simply a product of the team’s extraordinary chemistry and closeness.

“They are connected; they really are,” Stone said. “A lot of people say that, but this is true. … They’re a great group of women that there’s no stars. … It’s by far the best team — collective team — that I’ve coached since I’ve been at Wisconsin.”

As for maintaining her level of output going forward, Steinbauer said she knew of one thing that surely would help.

“For us to have 8,000 fans at a home game, they empower us with energy and they bring energy for us,” Steinbauer said. “I said it out there on the court, but it’d be great if we could get 8,000 fans to every game — you know, we’d never lose at home.”

And if Steinbauer continues to put up numbers like the ones she compiled Sunday, not losing at home begins to look a lot more plausible.