The Wisconsin Badgers’ (3-13 Big Ten, 7-19 overall) relatively large senior class didn’t have the storybook ending it wanted. But the story of this Wisconsin senior class didn’t have a polished beginning or middle, either. So in that way, it was almost fitting that the Badgers lost on senior day to the Northwestern Wildcats (4-12, 15-13) 71-53 Saturday afternoon at the Kohl Center.
“Obviously we are not very pleased with the outcome, but you know it’s senior day, it’s a special day for these young women to end their careers,” head coach Bobbie Kelsey said. “I thought they were giving it everything they had out there, but we just came up short in some areas.”
Coming up short has been a theme for Wisconsin all season long, as even when it chipped into leads in the middle or toward the end of games, it more often than not come up just short.
The Badgers went back and forth with the Wildcats in the first and second quarter and, at points in the second period when Northwestern looked to extend their eight point lead to double figures, Wisconsin battled back, showing the fight Kelsey referred to. Eventually UW trailed by only five heading into the locker room and the crowd of just under 4,000 people seemed optimistic that the significance of Saturday’s game would propel the team to victory.
The seniors line up at center court for a few last words in front of their home fans pic.twitter.com/wQhnfC7S1o
— DailyCardinal Sports (@Cardinal_Sports) February 20, 2016
But just like many other games this season, UW struggled almost immediately once the second half began. Northwestern came out of the gate with ferocity, using a 9-2 run to extend its six-point halftime lead to 15. Junior forward Nia Coffey had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Wildcats, and freshman center Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah added 10 points and 14 rebounds of her own.
“I can’t pinpoint one reason why [we struggled in the third quarter]. Again it’s not for of lack of effort,” Kelsey said. “These guys are really trying to execute the offense and get the looks we want. It’s just a matter of knocking them down consistently. And for whatever reason there has just been a lid on our basket.”
And for long stretches of the game it looked like there was a lid on the Badgers’ basket.
UW shot only 37 percent from the field and had by far their worst 3-point shooting game of the season, making only two of their season-low eight 3-point attempts.
“That was a big part [of our game plan]. When you watch them, they really play off their threes and it opens things up inside and out,” Northwestern head coach Joe McKeown said. “Whyte’s a great shooter. Bauman’s a great shooter. They have a number of people, so we just tried to make it hard for them to get the ball in those situations.”
UW’s four core seniors, Tessa Cichy, Michala Johnson, Nicole Bauman and Dakota Whyte, all contributed in various ways, but collectively, as has been the case Saturday afternoon and throughout season, just weren’t good enough.
Johnson and Bauman scored 13 points each. Dakota Whyte added eight points and five assists. Cichy had seven points of her own, including the Badgers’ first made 3-pointer, which came with just over four minutes to go in the third quarter. But it paled in comparison to Coffey, Kunaiyi-Akpanah and senior guard Maggie Lyon, who added 18 points and nine rebounds of her own.
And while a lot of emotion bookended Wisconsin’s lost to Northwestern, the sentimentality of Saturday’s game was not a cause for defeat.
“It’s a sentimental day. But in the end you just want to win the game. That’s really all that is on your mind,” Bauman said. “Obviously we weren’t able to do that today, which makes it harder, but like coach Bobbie said we just have to keep pushing and not give up.”
UW’s regular season comes to close in the next eight days with away games at Maryland and Purdue. And while the storybook of the Badgers’ 2015-’16 season at home is officially closed, the final chapters for their year as a whole are yet to be written.
“We want to finish strong, we have a couple more games here, and then the Big Ten tournament and you never know what’s going to happen,” Kelsey said. “So we’re going to continue to fight and try to get a “W” somewhere along the line here, if not multiple ones. Because we can do it. We believe in them.”
Dakota Whyte walks out to greet her coach on senior day pic.twitter.com/mYW0T1Nasb
— DailyCardinal Sports (@Cardinal_Sports) February 20, 2016
