Coach Marisa Moseley and the University of Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Basketball Team (11-13, 2-11 Big Ten) lost for the 11th time in 12 games Sunday, falling into a hole early against the Illinois Fighting Illini (19-5, 9-4) that was too deep to escape. Wisconsin never led in the contest and was outscored 25-10 in the first quarter.
Wisconsin struggled on both ends during the period, shooting 3-for-12 from the field and turning the ball over five times while allowing Illinois to go 8-for-15 from the floor.
“[Illinois] outrebounded us in the first quarter, and they outhustled us,” graduate student Natalie Leuzinger said. “You’re not going to win a lot of games when teams do that to you.”
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Playing three strong quarters and one sub-par period has become a theme for this Badgers’ team. While they’ve overcome droughts in past games, a slow first quarter has been more difficult to recover from.
“[It’s] the energy it takes to kind of dig yourself out,” coach Moseley said of the downsides to falling behind early. “We were able to stop them several times [later in the game] and not convert off that, and that also can really take a toll.”
Illinois’ lead grew to as many as 21 points during the second quarter before Wisconsin began to chip away. Still, the Badgers never got the difference into single digits.
“We just gotta be able to put scores and stops together,” coach Moseley said of the team’s struggles.
It may sound simple, but the task was complicated by Illinois’ stifling defense and proficient transition offense. The Fighting Illini turned 15 Wisconsin turnovers into 19 points and logged 11 more fastbreak points than the Badgers.
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Fifth-year forward Kendall Bostic may have been the most impressive defender for the Fighting Illini. Bostic drew the Serah Williams assignment, and Williams scored just 14 points on 3-for-11 shooting and committed four turnovers.
Bostic’s ability to slow down Williams one-on-one allowed the Fighting Illini guards to play aggressively on the perimeter. Wisconsin attempted merely 10 3-pointers, and the trio of Tess Myers, Leuzinger and Lily Krahn combined to score 13 points on 3-for-13 shooting.
It was the second straight game that the Badgers struggled to generate 3-point looks, as USC limited Wisconsin to eight attempts from beyond the arc Feb. 4. In Wisconsin’s two conference wins, they attempted 23 and 25 3-pointers and made 37.5 percent of those attempts overall.
Moseley didn’t dance around the lack of perimeter production, simply saying:
“We have got to get way more threes up.”
The loss moved the Badgers to 2-11 in conference play, which places them 14 out of 18 teams in the Big Ten and firmly at risk of being one of the three teams left out of the new conference championship tournament format. Wisconsin’s schedule won’t get any easier as they head out on the road to face No. 22 Michigan State Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 5:30 pm.