All season long the Wisconsin women's basketball team has fought and clawed with the best post players in the nation. But despite valiant efforts against some of the top teams in the country, the undersized Badgers (2-6 Big Ten, 8-10 overall) have struggled down low in Big Ten play for much of the year. But if Sunday's 79-71 victory against Michigan is any indication, the bruises UW experienced in the first half of the Big Ten season are starting to pay dividends.
Head coach Lisa Stone received impressive performances from both senior forward Ebba Gebisa (season-high 18 points) and junior forward Annie Nelson (career-high 13 rebounds) in the Badgers' second conference win last Sunday. Along with the success has come a renewed confidence in the post players as UW looks to make it two straight against Indiana (1-8, 8-11) Thursday in Bloomington.
\The first half of the Big Ten season, [assistant] coach Freitag got on us a lot for not being very productive in the post,"" Nelson said. ""We are going against some great players that are a lot bigger than us, but we have been working a lot more down low recently, and on being finesse players.""
The Badgers enter Thursday's contest with three players averaging double figures, led by freshman guard Jolene Anderson. Anderson, the Big Ten's fourth-leading scorer (17.9 points per game) has led the Badgers in scoring 11 times this season and is also Wisconsin's second-leading rebounder. Anderson has reaped the benefits of the hard work of the post players down low.
""They have been getting beat down inside,"" senior guard Stephanie Rich said. ""And a lot of people talk about how Jolene and Janese [Banks] have been getting a lot of offensive rebounds, but that's just because the post players have been working their tails off and their have been openings to get those rebounds so they can just slide in there.""
Despite being the league's worse offensive team, averaging close to 10 points per game less than any other Big Ten squad and shooting worse than any other squad in the conference (35 percent), the Hoosiers thrive on the defensive side of the ball.
Led by former UW coach Dick Bennett's daughter Kathi, the Bennett philosophy of hard-nosed defenders has followed her to Bloomington. Indiana has allowed just 52.6 points per game, second lowest in the Big Ten, leading the conference in both opposing teams' field goal percentage (35 percent) and 3-point field goal percentage (27 percent).
""Against Indiana you have to be patient,"" Stone said. ""I have coached against Kathi Bennett for 12 years, and our paths are very similar ... Indiana has some of the best pressure defense I have ever seen. Their intensity just comes from their defense.""
