It wasn’t pretty, nor was it easy, but Wisconsin left the Kohl Center floor with a ‘W’ after taking down Winona State 78-71 in Sunday’s exhibition match.
The Badgers left the first quarter up 22-11 and extended that lead in the second to make it 41-19.
But once the third quarter ended, the story had changed quite a bit.
Winona State outscored Wisconsin by 17 points in the third and entered the fourth down by only five.
“There’s a reason Winona State won 30 games last year, and went on to the second round of the NCAA tournament,” Wisconsin head coach Jonathan Tsipis said, giving credit to a tough Warrior team.
Winona State was held to just 19 points in the first half, however they came out firing to start the third, putting up 35 points in the third quarter alone.
“They [Winona State] were better than us from an energy and confidence standpoint to start the second half,” Tsipis said.
To begin the exhibition game, Wisconsin tried to get redshirt senior Kendall Shaw involved early, but it was freshman forward Courtney Fredrickson and junior guard Cayla McMorris who led the way for the Badgers.
McMorris ended the contest with 20 points, shooting 7-of-14 from the field and knocking down 4-of-7 three-pointers. Fredrickson finished second in scoring with 19 points, also making four three-pointers.
McMorris wasn’t just called upon on offense, though. She was also given the tough task of guarding Winona State senior guard Tara Roelofs, who finished the game with 29 points.
Senior center Kayla Timmerman finished second on the Warriors in scoring, ending with 14 points.
Roelofs entered this game without a bucket and only managed to score once in the first half before turning on the jets.
McMorris was able to best Roelofs a few times, picking her pocket with 1:32 left in the fourth quarter. She also had a huge block with 32 seconds left and the Badgers up five. Following a Tsipis timeout, McMorris was fouled and knocked in two free throws to make it a seven-point game and seal the victory.
In terms of the game being a tale of two halves, Tsipis found the silver lining of the defensive collapse.
“It gave us some good late game experience, I’m always going to look at glass half full,” Tsipis said. “Together all of us have to learn how to win. I’m really proud of the whole group.”
For many Badgers’ player, this was their first time even seeing action on the Kohl Center floor.
Wisconsin played three freshmen, Fredrickson, Kendra Van Leeuwen, and Suzanne Gilreath.
Gilreath finished the game with seven points, going 2-of-5 from deep, and one rebound. Van Leeuwen, who controlled the offense from the point guard role, ended with four points, six rebounds, and eight assists.
Of course it was Fredrickson who stole the show for her class, putting up 19 points, despite pre-game butterflies.
“I was extremely nervous in the first couple minutes,” Fredrickson said. “It’s all a learning experience, I had to get those jitters out but I got into the flow of the game.”
Another fresh face was redshirt junior forward Malayna Johnson. Johnson, who hasn’t seen any in-game action in over a year, was able to play and contribute for Wisconsin in this exhibition match. She concluded the night with four rebounds and one assist.
“It’s just great to get them [the freshmen] out there and build some experience,” Tsipis said.
Wisconsin and Winona State each ended the game with 39 rebounds. The Badgers outperformed Winona State in assists, 18-14, and steals, 14-5.
There were highs and lows for Wisconsin in every quarter, two of those highs coming from McMorris. To end the first half, she sunk a three-pointer, capping off an impressive half for Wisconsin on both ends.
The low point was quarter number three.
“The big takeaway is our kids continuing to move on to the next possession,” coach Tsipis said. “We got some more experience on how we can get through some things and trust our teammates.”
Slowing down big scoring runs will be a key point for this young Wisconsin team and coach Tsipis. Wisconsin returns to the Kohl Center this Tuesday at 7 p.m. to take on the University of Wisconsin-Stout in its second and final exhibition match of the season.
