For a team that sits pretty comfortably near the basement of the conference when it comes to rebounding, the Wisconsin women's basketball team (8-3 Big Ten, 13-10 overall) bounced back just fine Sunday against Indiana (2-9 Big Ten, 8-15 overall) after suffering an overtime loss Thursday to Michigan State.
The 75-49 victory was the 500th in head coach Lisa Stone's college coaching career.
On par with the rest of this season, the Badgers battled the Hoosiers neck and neck through much of the first half. Up by just one with 4:17 left to go in the half, however, Wisconsin went on a ferocious 14-2 run, heading into halftime with a 39- 26 lead.
The Badgers kept their foot on the pedal throughout the second half, never leading by fewer than 12 points. A six minute, 11-0 run midway through the second half the turned the contest from a comfortable victory to an absolute blowout for Wisconsin.
The victory for the Badgers was the ninth straight loss for Indiana. After beginning the Big Ten season with two victories, the Hoosiers have not won a game in over a month.
Team-leading scorer, senior guard Alyssa Karel continued her stellar season with a game-high 21 points. Senior forward Lin Zastrow added 14 of her own while contributing five rebounds in just 28 minutes of play.
The Badgers finished the game 9-19 from beyond the arc, with Karel and sophomore guard Taylor Wurtz each hitting three. The Hoosiers managed just 3-15 from three-point range.
Both teams went to the free throw line 18 times, but the Badgers converted an impressive 16, while Indiana hit just eight.
Wisconsin, a team that sits dead last in the Big Ten in offense with just 59.6 points per game (three points per contest fewer than Indiana), has now scored 70 points in a game for the second consecutive contest. The Badgers haven't done that since late last season when the team pulled the trick against Michigan and Penn State.
Indiana senior guard Jori Davis, who had been averaging a team-high 18.3 points per contest heading into Sunday, managed just 14 against Wisconsin.
All 12 Badgers found playing time Sunday, with all but three scoring at least one point.
Stone, in her 26th season as a coach, has spent the last eight with the Badgers. Stone has also coached at Drake, UW- Eau Claire, and Cornell College. The University of Iowa native has reached the Division III Elite Eight five times, the Final Four twice, and fell to NYU in the Division III National Championship game in 1997. At the Division I level, Stone has appeared in three NCAA tournaments, including last season with the Badgers and the Sweet Sixteen with Drake in 2002.
Wisconsin now turns their attention to this Thursday when the Wildcats will make an appearance at the Kohl Center. The Badgers face Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., just over a week ago, taking that contest 62-50.
