The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team (4-0) managed to squeeze out a tough 65-64 win in overtime over the IUPUI Jaguars to achieve their first 4-0 start since the 2006-2007 season.
The game started off very slow as the Badger’s continued their free throw line struggles from the start. Sophomore guard Niya Beverley missed both opportunities on the line in the Badger’s first possession with the ball. The Jaguars on the other hand started strong offensively with Macee Williams as their focal point.
Williams stayed at the high post for most of the first half of the game. The big forward set numerous pick-and-rolls, and caused the Badgers to get in foul trouble early with her intense drives to the basket. Along with setting picks, she also was able to help pass the ball in order to create opportunities for the Jaguars to go 4-for-7 from three point range in the first quarter as the Jaguars held a 17-15 lead at the end of it.
By the end of the first half, the game looked like it was going to be decided between Williams and Wisconsin senior forward Marsha Howard. The two players went back and forth putting up points for their respective teams. They finished the half leading their teams in scoring; Williams had 17 while Howard had 8.
Star freshman forward Imani Lewis was in foul trouble early and therefore only saw about seven minutes of play in the first half. One of the few offensive high points for the Badgers in the first half was when redshirt senior guard Kelly Kharlis was able to make a layup while drawing a foul. Despite missing the free throw, Wisconsin was able to recover the rebound from the miss and dish it out to Kharlis, where she nailed a three from deep — a rare five-point possession. Other than that the Badger’s looked diminished as they had eight turnovers in the first half and lost junior forward Abby Laszewski to injury.
Coming out of the halftime break down 33-31, the Badgers started to focus on stopping Macee Williams and limiting any early foul trouble, and they were able to find answers in Niya Beverly and Abby Laszewski.
Laszewski came back from her lower body injury and managed to slow down Williams. The junior proved capable of defending Williams, posting three blocks and filling in well while Lewis and Howard were in foul trouble. Meanwhile, Beverley jump-started the offense, as she got the ball moving through quick passing, and helped lead a run to pull the Badger’s ahead 46-43 at the end of the third quarter.
The game only got closer from that point on. A huge difference maker for Wisconsin was Imani Lewis. Lewis went from only playing 13 minutes in the first three quarters, while shooting 1-for-8 from the court, to finishing the fourth quarter shooting 4-for-6 and grabbing a crucial offensive rebound that forced overtime with the score knotted up at 59-59.
In overtime with 15.2 seconds left on the clock, the Badger’s were down one without the ball, thanks to the Jaguars’ sophomore guard Sydney Roule draining a clutch three-pointer and a missed free throw by Howard. On the inbound, pressure by junior guard Kendra Van Leeuwen, led to a jump ball which gave the ball back to Wisconsin with minimal time remaining on the clock. Howard came up big for the team, receiving a pass and, in her own words, “parting the seas,” and ended the game with a wide open layup.
The game lived up to the hype and resulted in a 65-64 win for Wisconsin. While the Badgers still struggled at the free throw line, their strength of crashing the boards and getting rebounds showed. Wisconsin finished with 9 more rebounds than the Jaguars which had head coach Jonathan Tsipis happy knowing they were dominating the paint.
“I felt good that even had [Howard] missed [her game-winning layup], that we would’ve had someone, the way we were getting on the offensive glass...we could've gotten ourselves a chance to maybe get a second opportunity at it,” Tsipis said.
According to Tsipis, going up against “one of the best post players in the country,” in Williams, is a challenge the Badgers needed, and they answered the challenge tonight.
Wisconsin’s next challenge will be a matchup against the Duke Blue Devils (2-1) on Wednesday.
