Looking to rebound from a disappointing loss against Penn State last week, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (15-5, 5-4) will begin the second half of the Big Ten season on the road as they travel to Indiana to face the Hoosiers (11-9, 4-5) Thursday night at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind.
Like the Badgers, the Hoosiers find themselves coming off a tough conference loss, having fallen 70-56 to the Michigan Wolverines last Sunday. Wisconsin, meanwhile, enjoyed a rare off weekend, and head coach Lisa Stone’s squad looks eager to get back to work against Indiana.
“Our bye weekend came at a very good time,” Stone said. “We had the weekend, this weekend off to refresh and recharge and we’re looking forward to having very purposeful practices this week in preparation for Indiana, who’s a really good team.
“They had a tough loss at Michigan [Sunday], but …every team in the Big Ten is good, and this second half, we hope, is even better than the first.”
While Wisconsin has been the best defensive team in the conference for the majority of the season, currently allowing only 52.3 points per game, Indiana’s offensive attack will pose a challenge.
Boasting the Big Ten’s fourth-best scoring offense, the Hoosiers have often relied on their offensive output, as defense has been their crux all year. Allowing 65.8 points per game and posting only a +2 scoring margin over opponents, Indiana finds itself second-worst in both conference categories.
“From what I remember, and seeing them play this year, they’re a very quick team looking to run in transition,” senior guard Teah Gant said. “Very guard-heavy, and their guards are really good. Not very tall, so I think we need to really do well in that area, in that post.
“We just have to make sure we play as a team, and not one person is guarding individually for our whole team.”
Employing a three-guard starting lineup similar to that of the Badgers, the Hoosiers have relied on senior Jamie Braun and juniors Whitney Lindsay and Jori Davis — the team’s leading scorer — for much of their offensive production.
“Their guard corps is very good,” Stone said, echoing Gant. “They will zone us the whole game, and it’s a very aggressive, matchup zone, so that’s something that we need to make sure that we attack, find good shots.”
For Wisconsin, the Penn State loss saw arguably their worst offensive game of the year.
By the end of the 54-43 defeat, the Badgers had posted season lows in points and field goal percentage. In order to return to the form that has seen two four-game win streaks this season, UW will have to rediscover the balanced scoring that characterized the offense throughout the first half of the Big Ten schedule.
Junior guard Alyssa Karel has been the Badgers’ leading scorer for the past two years, and has contributed just shy of 14 points per game this season.
Complementing her has been junior forward Tara Steinbauer and impressive freshman Taylor Wurtz, averaging 8.3 and 8.1 points per game, respectively. In addition, two other starters average seven-plus a game, while Gant contributes 5.9.
“I think we just need to come out with the mentality that we still need to fight in every game,” Gant said. “I think we were down to like three minutes left in the [Penn State] game, and we just needed to come out with even more energy than we did in the first half. So we definitely just have to stick to our principles.”
As always, Wisconsin’s principles have included stout defense and limited turnovers. Stone’s squad has posted the sixth-best scoring defense in the nation, and is fifth in the Big Ten in turnover margin at + 1.0. Against the Hoosier zone, taking care of the ball will be at a premium for the Badgers, as will be the aforementioned offensive production.
“I think our shot selection can improve,” Stone said. “I think that we need to score more in the post. I thought we passed up some open looks [against Penn State], and those are things we can fix.
“We had a film session that we educated our players as to things that they can work on. We move forward,” she continued. “It’s less about the Penn State game and more about how we respond going into the Indiana game, and that’s the full focus.”