Sunday afternoon before the Wisconsin Badgers (2-8 Big Ten, 6-14 overall) tipped off against the Michigan State Spartans (7-2, 16-4), all the focus in the Kohl Center was on UW’s “Think Pink” initiative, which raises awareness for breast cancer research. The nearly 10,000 fans in attendance all received pink Wisconsin basketball t-shirts and LED bracelets. Multiple announcements were made recognizing the fight against breast cancer. And both teams infused pink into their respective wardrobes.
But right after the opening tip, the Badgers could have probably thought about Michigan State redshirt junior Aerial Powers a little bit more. Behind a big second quarter, Powers torched the Badgers, finishing with 30 points and nine rebounds in the Spartans’ 77-54 win over the Badgers.
“I’ve never seen the wristbands situation [before], but that was a really really neat atmosphere. So I don’t know what marketing team came up with that, but kudos to them,” Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant said. “Obviously, we set the tone with Aerial in the first half, really competing, using her screens extremely well. When she gets in a zone it’s a fun thing to watch.”
And while it might have been fun for Merchant and her Michigan State players to watch, Powers terrorized every Badger defender she faced Sunday afternoon.
“All in all this is a tough team, this is an NCAA team, and they have Powers, who is kind of a one woman wrecking machine out there,” Wisconsin head coach Bobbie Kelsey said. “She’s hard to cover. She can shoot the three. She can shoot the pullup she can pass, she can go to the basket, she can play defense. She does everything.”
One thing Kelsey omitted in her definition of Powers’ game is her rebounding ability. Powers pulled in nine rebounds of her own as the Spartans dominated the boards, grabbing 26 more missed shots than the Badgers.
“They were getting second and third looks at it. We [would] take care of them on the first try, but then they’d run right through you and get the ball, so you got to box out,” Kelsey said.
But it wasn’t until the second quarter when the rebounding differential really made a difference. After one quarter, the Badgers trailed by two points and had only one less rebound than the Spartans. Ten minutes later, Wisconsin headed to the locker room with a minus 14 rebound differential and trailed by 16.
“I just think they asserted themselves, and kind of got some looks out the basket that we may have had a defensive breakdown here or there,” Kelsey said of her team’s poor second period. “But I thought we had some good looks, but the difference is you just got to make those little shots right around the basket.”
Both senior center Michala Johnson and junior power forward Avyanna Young struggled from the floor shooting a combined 6-of-17 from the field. The Badgers’ lack of frontcourt production put even more pressure on senior guards Nicole Bauman and Dakota Whyte, who as it turned out, were the Badgers’ lone double-digit scorers for the game.
“I think that we got good looks, we just have to finish. There’s nothing more I can say, the ball just has to go in the basket,” Whyte said.
Whyte finished with 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting, while Bauman led UW with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting.
“I thought Bauman was extremely tough as always, [she] really set the tone in the first half and kind of put her team on her back,” Merchant said. “And then again Dakota got away from us again in the second half, so that was challenging certainly for us, but I thought we played a good floor game all the way around at both ends of the floor.”
The Spartans were especially excellent on the defensive end, holding the Badgers to only 34 percent shooting from the field.
And while it has become a ritual for Wisconsin to fall far behind early in games before rallying back in the fourth quarter, UW ran out of gas Sunday afternoon, getting outscored 18-8 in the game’s final period.
Even in defeat, Kelsey acknowledged there were plenty of positives that emerged from yet another loss. But the road doesn’t get an easier for the Badgers, as Thursday afternoon they travel to Columbus, Ohio and face the leading scorer in the Big Ten, sophomore guard Kelsey Mitchell and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
“We’re going to keep fighting. We’re not going to hang our heads. We’re going to keep going and we’ll get some of these games,” Kelsey said.
