The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team (12-14, 3-12 Big Ten) took down the Penn State Nittany Lions (10-16, 1-14) on Sunday, Feb. 16 to break a four-game losing streak. It was the team’s second win in its last 14 games.
Wisconsin started out the game hot, shooting 61% from the field in a first quarter where the Badgers held their first lead in three games and ended leading 24-21. 13 of those points came from junior forward Serah Williams.
Wisconsin entered the fourth quarter with a one-point lead before graduate student guard Halle Douglass caught fire and had one of the best games of her career with 17 points on 5-9 shooting, including four three-pointers to put Penn State away, earning the Badgers a 75-68 win.
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Penn State’s Gracie Merkle had 28 points on 13-17 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds, but Douglas’s effort was backed up by Williams who showed why she is on World Exposure Report’s (WER) top-10 players this season, scoring 23 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, her 13th double double of the season.
Junior guard Ronnie Porter scored 18 points and dished out 12 assists, her first double double of the season, putting her on WER’s top-10 Power 5 conference players for Feb. 15-17. Williams also added three blocks and two steals and Porter grabbed five steals on the day to power the Badgers past Merkle’s impressive outing.
The Badgers have struggled mightily as of late, but will look to build more momentum on Sunday, Feb. 23 against Northwestern followed by a matchup against No. 3 UCLA on Wednesday, Feb. 26, both in Madison at the Kohl Center.
The final game of the regular season will be played in Iowa against the Hawkeyes on Sunday, Mar. 3 leading into the Big Ten Tournament.