The Wisconsin women’s basketball team (0-1 Big Ten, 7-7 overal) had not played in over two weeks entering Thursday night: It showed. No. 23 Iowa (1-0, 13-1) grabbed a 19-5 lead and handily defeated the Badgers at the Kohl Center 56-46.
Wisconsin assistant coach Craig Carter summarized the first half by pointing out three things that led Iowa to jump out to an early lead and dominate the game. First, Iowa redshirt freshman guard Alexis Sevillian was left wide open allowing her to hit two big three’s in the first quarter, allowing the Hawkeyes to settle into an offensive groove. Sevillian’s 11 first-half points would lead Iowa to a 30-14 lead heading into halftime.
Secondly, he pointed out that coming into the game the team's focus was to slow the Hawkeye’s transition game and limit fast break opportunities, which UW could not do in the first half.
Lastly, he noted that the team did an excellent job in holding Iowa’s star player, junior forward Megan Gustafson, in check in the first half, allowing her to only score eight points and grab seven rebounds.
She couldn’t, however, be contained forever. The story of the second half was the emergence of the Port Wing, Wis., native Gustafson as she dominated down low and from the line. Gustafson would shoot a perfect 11-11 from the line in the second half on her way to 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, securing key possessions down the stretch for the Hawkeyes. Gustafson would finish with 21 points and 16 rebounds securing her 13th double-double in 14 games so far this year.
Still, there were several bright spots that the Badgers can take away from this game, one being that they forced Iowa into a season-high 21 turnovers.
The other bright spot was the resilience of the defense, as UW bounced back from a disappointing first quarter and held Iowa to their lowest scoring total all season.
For the second straight game missing star senior guard Cayla McMorris, the Badgers had three players in double figures, as sophomore forward Courtney Fredrickson pitched in 10 points, junior forward Marsha Howard dropped 10 points and sophomore guard Suzanne Gilreath provided a much needed spark in the second half coming off the bench and providing 11 points.
Moving forward into conference play, if the Badgers can avoid getting out to a slow start like they did tonight and can also convert turnovers into points, they should have a successful conference campaign in a competitive Big Ten.
The Badgers will look to get their first conference win of the year as they head to West Lafayette, Ind., Sunday afternoon to face the Purdue Boilermakers (0-1, 9-6).
