It happened again. The Wisconsin Badgers (8-14, 4-8 Big Ten) fought hard but just couldn’t keep up with the 16th ranked Iowa Hawkeyes (19-4, 10-2 Big Ten), losing 87-75.
“Very disappointed that we could not finish out the game a little bit stronger,” said head coach Bobbie Kelsey. “In that second half, we just kind of let it get away from us a little bit… a lot actually. They hit some tough shots and some ones that we probably could’ve stopped but we just had trouble with that. Credit them, they’re 19-4 for a reason.”
UW led for most of the first half and was only down by four at halftime. Yet, the Hawkeyes pulled away in the second half thanks to senior guard and Wisconsin native Samantha Logic, who scored a career high 30 points including 13 of Iowa’s 17 points to start the second half.
“She got a full head of steam and that was part of the problem,” says coach Kelsey. We let her get going too fast, and it’s hard to stop a player going that fast. When they have shooters, you can’t really help inside. She did a good job of just putting her head down and going to the rim.”
Besides Logic’s strong performance, senior center Bethany Doolittle had 18 points and sophomore guard Ally Disterhoft had 17 points for Iowa. Iowa’s leading scorer, senior guard Melissa Dixon, was held to only two points, a fraction of her 16.1 points per game average.
The Hawkeyes are on fire and have now won eight of their last nine games.
“The second half, they [Iowa] came out really aggressive. Everybody came out attacking the basket. We really didn’t have an answer,” says UW senior forward Jacki Gulczynski. “They came down and scored, and we came down and either turned it over, or got a tough shot. But I think a lot of it was us not necessarily executing on the defensive end.”
UW kept the game competitive by having four players go in double figures, including a career high 20 points from junior guard Tessa Cichy. Gulczynski scored 14 points, while senior forward Cassie Rochel and junior guard Nicole Bauman each scored 12 points.
Once again, offensive production didn’t seem to be the problem for Wisconsin, as they shot 45.9 percent in the game. This was the seventh straight game that UW shot over 42 percent.
The Badgers also outrebounded the Hawkeyes 39-32, with Cichy grabbing a game-high eight boards.
Despite the tough loss, the Badgers believe that they can stay with teams and keep improving. They believe that fixing the little things will be most important as they continue to get better.
“We’re still capable and I think we showed that in the first half,” says Gulczynski.
“Its just little breakdowns — little things, little details like footwork, things like that. Something we can fix. I know we can fix them moving forward.”
The Badgers next opponent is Minnesota, who they will face on the road this Wednesday at 7 p.m.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
