With the last half of the season dwindling down, the Wisconsin women's basketball team will look to earn some last-minute wins as the team travels to Iowa City to play the Hawkeyes Thursday night.
On Monday, the Badgers (5-10 Big Ten, 15-11 overall) suffered an overtime 67-61 loss to Indiana, making it their fifth loss out of the last six games. Iowa (9-5, 16-9), who sits in fifth place in the Big Ten Conference, will not be an easy matchup for Wisconsin, as the Hawkeyes have won eight of their last 10 games.
What we have to do is recover our team and get ready for Iowa,"" Wisconsin head coach Lisa Stone said after the game against Indiana. ""[Iowa] is a great offensive team, and I thought our defense in the last two games has resurrected itself and come back and done a nice job on the boards.""
Wisconsin has had some trouble coming up with wins in close games, but Iowa has shown great strength this season when the game is on the line. The Hawkeyes gave Ohio State one of its three losses this season and recently came back from a 20-point deficit to pull past Penn State.
Iowa also has the second strongest scoring offense in the Big Ten, averaging just over 67 points per game. UW will have to execute a solid defensive performance to slow down the Hawkeyes and pull off a win.
Although sophomore guard Alyssa Karel leads the Wisconsin offense, averaging 13 points a game, sophomore forward Tara Steinbauer had a career high 17 points with nine boards against the Hoosiers. Sophomore forward Lin Zastrow contributed 14 with a career-high four assists.
Both Zastrow and Karel have performed well against the Hawkeyes this year, as Zastrow netted a team-high 18 points, and Karel scored 11 when the Badgers played Iowa in Dec., 2008.
""I like the fact that we are getting some scoring from some other folks instead of just Alyssa [Karel], and I am looking forward to picking up the pieces,"" Stone said.
In their last meeting against the Hawkeyes, Wisconsin fell short 73-63 and had trouble from the field, shooting just 24-of-65 for just 36.9 percent. This game snapped their 10 game winning streak and served as a major turning point in Wisconsin's season.
Senior guard Kristi Smith leads Iowa in scoring and is averaging an impressive 13.4 points per game. Smith is ranked fifth in the Big Ten in scoring and scored 13 points for her team the last time the Hawkeyes played Wisconsin.
However, it was Iowa senior forward Wendy Ausdemore who gave the Badgers a headache as she scored a game-high 20 points.
After Thursday's matchup, the Badgers only have two chances left for redemption against current conference leaders, Michigan State and Ohio State. Wisconsin fell to both of these teams earlier this season.
Tip off for the Badger-Hawkeye game is set for 7 p.m. at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
