With 45 seconds left to play in the first half, the Badgers (3-14 Big Ten, 7-20 overall) were remarkably down only one point to a Maryland (15-2, 26-3) team who currently ranked second in the Big Ten and sixth in the nation. Wisconsin senior guard Nicole Bauman tried to penetrate, but turned the ball over to Maryland’s redshirt senior guard Brene Moseley. Moseley mishandled the ball, and she and Wisconsin senior guard Tessa Cichy both dove for the loose ball in the middle of the court. Moseley found a way to corral the ball, and Maryland’s ensuing ball movement found junior guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough wide open for a three to extend the Terrapins’ lead.
This crucial, momentum-swinging play at the end of the first half was a microcosm of Wisconsin’s 83-77 loss in College Park, Md. Despite constant effort throughout the duration of the game, Maryland’s talent allowed it to make more plays and pull away throughout the middle of the contest.
Wisconsin has struggled to open games this year, getting outscored by a cumulative 50 points in the opening frame. Against Maryland, to the clear surprise of UMD’s stadium, Wisconsin came out firing to start the game. The Badgers opened with a 22-13 lead, and entered the second quarter up seven.
Unfortunately for UW, however, the Badgers could not sustain this level of play going into the second quarter. Maryland started out the ensuing frame on a 12-0 run, and eventually closed the second quarter on a six-to-nothing run to regain the lead going into halftime.
Coming out of the break, the Badgers once again let Maryland go on dominant stretches. Behind Walker-Kimbrough, who finished the game with 27 points on 9-of-12 from beyond the arc, the Terrapins built as large as a 76-55 lead with five minutes to go in the game.
This season, one of Wisconsin’s biggest weaknesses is allowing their opponents to dominate them for small, irrecoverable spurts of the game. Maryland’s ability to go on several extended runs throughout the night left UW in too big of a hole to climb out of.
To counteract these Terrapin runs, Wisconsin attempted to play smaller than normal, hoping to push the pace and spread Maryland’s defense. Badger head coach Bobbie Kelsey used a small-ball lineup of guards Bauman, Cichy, Dakota Whyte and Cayla McMorris, along with center Michala Johnson for portions of the second half.
Unfortunately for the Badgers, Maryland stayed big and overpowered UW’s defense. Maryland’s double-center combination of Malina Howard and Brionna Jones, who finished with 20 points, pushed the Badger defense back at will, getting easy buckets right around the rim.
Still, despite Maryland looking like it was going to run uncontested to the finish line, the Badgers, as they have done for most of the year, emulated Kelsey’s “never stop fighting” mentality as the fourth quarter was winding down.
After Maryland built a 21-point lead with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Wisconsin started to hit its shots. Within two-and-a-half minutes, the Badgers found a way to crawl back within nine points, and eventually within six.
Bauman led the comeback for Wisconsin, hitting three after three from Stephen Curry range. Bauman finished the game with 23 points on 6-of-8 shooting from behind the arc.
Even though Bauman was the catalyst of the Badger response, all four of the Badgers’ primary seniors chipped in to help will the team to within striking distance. Johnson finished the game with 18 points, Whyte with 13 and Cichy with nine.
All year, the Badgers have been looking for a solid effort out of that group of four seniors, and this was probably the best combined game out of the veteran corps to date.
Still, the Badgers allowed Maryland to build too big of a lead in the middle two quarters. Walker-Kimbrough, Moseley and the other experienced Maryland players put on a passing exhibition, and claimed too many easy buckets for the Badgers to recover from.
Throughout the game, the Badgers showed a lot of improvement on a big stage. All four seniors contributed, the team shot the ball well (50 percent from the field) and they hustled for every loose ball. Wisconsin had one of its more complete games of the season, but could not find a way to pull out an upset against the more talented Terrapins.
