The Wisconsin Badgers women's basketball team cruised to an 88-33 victory over Division III UW-Platteville in their final tune-up of the preseason. The Badgers came out of the gate hot and never looked back. They shot 55 percent from the field on 22-40 shooting. Sophomore Guard Jolene Anderson led the Badgers with 19 points and her backcourt counterpart, sophomore guard Janese Banks, added 17. Senior Jordan Wilson and Sophomore Danielle Ward scored in double figures as well, with 11 and 10 respectively.
Wisconsin hit the glass hard and out-rebounded the Rangers 58-28. Senior forward Kjersten Backke continued to hustle, leading the team for the second straight game, with 11 boards, five of them offensive. She added nine points in just 18 minutes of action. Last year's leading rebounder, senior forward Annie Nelson, pulled down eight rebounds.
Though the Badgers are supposed to beat teams like Platteville and UW-Parkside, there are a lot of positives that they can still take away from their exhibition victories. For one, the Badgers played defensively. Last year, they finished last in the conference in scoring defense, allowing 73.1 points per game. Wisconsin head coach, Lisa Stone was pleased with her team's effort after the first exhibition game, where they had 11 steals. On Sunday, the Badgers had 18 swipes and forced 23 turnovers overall against the Rangers. They turned their defense into offense, scoring 33 points off Platteville miscues.
With the victory, the Badgers can now begin preparing for their season opener on Friday. The Badgers will face a tough University of Houston team that won 21 games last year.
