The Wisconsin women’s basketball team (4-10 Big Ten, 8-18 overall) is in the midst of its second-longest losing streak. The Badgers hope to finish their up-and-down season in the home stretch of the regular season on a strong note Thursday against Indiana (0-14, 5-22) at Assembly Hall.
The Badgers’ play has been anything but consistent during their current five-game losing streak. Wisconsin has scored an average of only 54.2 points per game in its last four games—before that they had a stretch of four games in which they scored 74.5 points per contest. Turnovers appear to have no affect on this statistic, as the Badgers have averaged just 13.5 per game in their last two games, which is considerably less than their 17.1 season average.
Instead, it appears the struggle can be almost entirely blamed on poor shooting. Over its last four games, Wisconsin has shot just 38.4 percent (81-of-211), which includes a 1-of-12 shooting effort from three-point range against Penn State Feb. 9. Despite these recent struggles, the Badgers still find themselves on pace to set the school record for three pointers made in a season. They need just 11 to surpass the 174 they made in the 2001-02 season.
A matchup against an Indiana team that is winless in Big Ten play this season seems to be a perfect opportunity for the Badgers to turn things around. However, Thursday’s game is Indiana’s Senior Night, where three seniors will be honored and will play their final game in historic Assembly Hall, making any thought of an easy win for the Badgers less likely.
“Think of how you would feel if we hadn’t won a [Big Ten] game yet,” Wisconsin head coach Bobbie Kelsey said. “It’s their Senior Night, so they’re going to, I would think, go all out.”
Senior forward Anya Covington expects the Hoosiers to give Wisconsin a fight.
“We’re not taking Indiana lightly at all,” Covington said. “We have to prepare to box out, we have to do all the little things. They’ll be ready.”
More importantly, Wisconsin must find its confidence that was shown during its three-game Big Ten winning streak in late January. Taking into account the upcoming Big Ten Tournament March 1-4 makes these last two games even more important. If the regular season ended today, the Badgers would notch the 10th seed and would play the seventh seed March 1, which currently belongs to Michigan.
Freshman guard Lacia Gorman has been perhaps the brightest spot for the Badgers over the course of the last couple of weeks. The Fort Wayne, Ind. native, who stands at just 5 foot 7, has scored nine and 10 points in the last two contests despite averaging only 1.7 points per game previously. Covington is perhaps most impressed by the progress.
“At the beginning everyone plays but then you get to that point in the season where the coach has determined who’s going to play. Then once you get in there and you just worry about not messing up, but once you get passed that thought process of not messing up, and more ‘I’m gonna go out and play,’ it’s a good thing,” Covington said with a laugh. “Lacia has gotten to that point.”
While Kelsey acknowledged Gorman isn’t ready to start, she did hint at her seeing some extended minutes and also saw traces of a marked increase in confidence on the floor.
A win at Indiana on Thursday would set up Sunday’s regular season finale and Senior Night perfectly, and finds the Badgers looking to continue its run of limiting turnovers.
Game time for the Thursday night matchup is slated for 6 p.m.
