For the majority of Sunday’s Senior Day home finale against Northwestern, it looked as if the Wisconsin women’s basketball team was going to pull off something special in a back-and-forth matchup.

However a late rally by the Wildcats was too much to overcome for Wisconsin in the 86-83 loss. Coming down to a last-second miss in overtime, the Badgers ultimately walked off the court defeated, but certainly not quitters, according to head coach Bobbie Kelsey.

Coming out of the gate looking as if they had something to prove, the Badgers provided a promising first half to their home crowd. Unlike previous starts at home in which they had given up double-digit runs to opponents, the interior defense, led by seniors Jacki Gulcynski and Cassie Rochel, provided an unrelenting effort in the paint, holding the Wildcats to just 23 first half points.

With 9:50 left in regulation, a jumper from junior guard Nicole Bauman brought the Kohl Center crowed to their feet, giving the Badgers a 55-40 lead, the biggest of the night, forcing Northwestern to call a timeout. It looked as if Wisconsin wasn’t going to give the Wildcats an opportunity to crawl back into contention.

It was from that point on, however, that Northwestern started to showcase why they have 21 wins already this season. All of the sudden, the shots Northwestern had missed in the first 21 minutes began to go in. Lead by the efforts of guard Nia Coffey, the Northwestern offense managed 30 points in the final nine minutes of regulation.

Wisconsin responded as much as it could to Northwestern’s run. Gulcynski came alive in the final minutes of her final home game. After being held scoreless until 18:50 in the second half, Gulcynski responded to Northwestern’s efforts with some late game heroics of her own, racking up 10 of her 19 total points in the final seven minutes of the second half to help Wisconsin fend off the rally.

Kelsey looked past the disappointment and pointed out the grit in her team throughout the entire 45 minutes. The team’s resiliency, especially after the deflating shot by Maggie Lyon to force overtime and Northwestern’s subsequent 9-2 run to start the extra period, is something she believes shouldn’t go unnoticed.

“If they quit, you can see that yourself and I wouldn’t have to say anything, but again these kids don’t quit and it says a lot about them,” Kelsey said. “They want to keep fighting for each other, for their families, or just whatever it is that makes them motivated to come out and not dwell on losing. I tell them all the time that if we don’t make this one, we’ll look ahead to the next one.”

With very little separating the two teams, it came down to Northwestern’s ability, and Wisconsin’s inability, to close in the final seconds that made the difference in both the end of regulation and overtime. When it was Northwestern’s turn to keep themselves alive, Lyon calmly hit a game-tying jumper in the final seconds of regulation. When it was Wisconsin’s turn to keep themselves alive, senior guard AnnMarie Brown was unable to hit a wide-open, game-tying layup in the final seconds of overtime.

While Brown was noticeably upset after the miss, and understandingly so with it being her last home game, she kept everything in perspective when reflecting on her last-second shortcoming.

“I can’t do anything about it, I tried and I did what I could, but it just came down to things down the stretch,” Brown said. “We were in a position where we were still up, but we just started to play not to lose rather than just keep shoving the ball down their throats and going for the win. We’ll bounce back and we know we’re there, but we just have to sharpen up a few more things.”

Senior forward Cassie Rochel was quick to defend Brown for the last-second mishap, emphasizing that one play doesn’t define a game.

“It’s no one person’s fault and when you throw the ball away at the end of the game, all that adds up,” Rochel said. “We obviously want to win, especially at this time in the season when every win counts. I was a little disappointed in that but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the four of us are graduating and moving on to bigger things.”

With little time to collect their emotions after the loss, the four seniors – Gulcynski, Brown, Rochel and the injured Michala Johnson – were presented with a framed jersey and an opportunity to address their fans and supporters in a postgame ceremony.

Standing at midcourt for the last time, perhaps Gulcynski said it best as she and her final-year teammates fought back tears in their farewell speeches to the fans.

“We haven’t had the winning-est seasons in our career, but thank you so much for sticking with us and coming to support us through all these games, you don’t know what it means to us,” Gulcynski said. “We have the best and most loyal fans in the Big Ten in my opinion. You all come to watch us, and we appreciate each and every one of you more than you can even know. So I hope you continue to come and watch our Badger program because they’re just going to get better in these upcoming years.”