The Wisconsin’s women’s basketball team (0-2 Big Ten, 7-8 overall) will take the court against No. 21 Michigan (1-1, 12-3) at home on Thursday at 7 p.m., hoping to break their recent three-game stretch of losses.
UW and Michigan are both coming off of costly defeats after the Badgers fell to Purdue and Michigan lost to Iowa, a game which severed the Wolverines’ eight-game winning streak.
Michigan senior guard Katelynn Flaherty will be a difficult force for Wisconsin to contain. Flaherty did her best to keep Michigan in the game against Iowa, but her team-high 24 points were not enough to hold off the Hawkeyes.
Wisconsin has already faced some talented guards so far this year, and when matching up against Flaherty the Badgers plan to do what they always do: play their best against her and stick to what they know.
“Just make sure that you always try your hardest,” freshman guard Niya Beverley said. “You know they are going to score baskets, but we still have to get up on them and play as hard as we can on defense.”
Accepting the fact that their opponents will score some points, UW still plans to keep their defense tight and work to secure a strong presence in the paint and on the boards. Along with Flaherty on the perimeter, the Badgers will be challenged down low by junior center Hallie Thome. When Wisconsin played Michigan in Ann Arbor last season, the key player of that game was Thome, who secured a career-high 37 points in the Wolverines’ win.
“We remember what she did to us the first game last year,” sophomore forward Abby Laszewski said. “We came back the second game and really centered our defense around stopping her and making sure she was limited, and I thought we did a much better job the second Michigan game last year, so we are just going to want to build off that and just be more aware of how much of an impact she can have.”
In the recent victory against Penn State, Thome ended the night with 21 points and 13 rebounds, her third double-double of the season.
Against the Wolverines, Laszewski will be responsible for contesting Thome on the boards in the hopes of out-rebounding Michigan. In the loss against Purdue, the sophomore led the Badgers with 12 points, with fellow forward Courtney Fredrickson trailing closely behind with 10. Both players will be key factors in controlling the paint against Michigan.
Wisconsin will need to complement its interior strength with improved guard play — the Badgers’ backcourt scored just five points against the Boilermakers, and will require a stronger performance to have a chance at pulling an upset against a favored Michigan squad.
