Indiana
Wisconsin women’s basketball makes second-half run but falls to No. 14 Indiana
MADISON – Wisconsin’s comeback only went so far Wednesday night.
The Badgers women’s basketball team played host to No. 14 Indiana and after trailing by 16 points at the half, trimmed the deficit to six 5 minutes into the third quarter.
Three days after coming back from 17 points down to beat Penn State, Wisconsin was putting some heat on the Big Ten’s second-place team. The coals of the comeback, however, ran cold in the fourth quarter and the Badgers suffered a 68-54 loss at the Kohl Center.
Box score: Indiana 68, Wisconsin 54
“We feel like we were struggling to put the ball in the basket,” Wisconsin coach Marisa Mosley said. “I don’t know if they did anything in particular to take that away from us, but a lot of what was tonight was really self-inflicted wounds, not taking care of the ball well enough, not getting great shots at the basket each time down. Those are things that are in our control and things we have to clean up.”
Sophomore forward Serah Williams recorded her 10th straight double-double (18 points, 14 rebounds). UW (11-12, 4-9 Big Ten) also got 11 points from sophomore guard Ronnie Porter and 10 points and five rebounds from senior forward Brooke Schramek.
Indiana (21-3, 12-2) remained one game behind No. 2 Ohio State, an 80-47 winner over Nebraska on Wednesday. Graduate student Mackenzie Holmes, a 6-3 forward, had team highs in scoring (24 points) and rebounding (eight). Holmes had 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the fourth quarter. Indiana also got 12 points on 4-for-4 three-point shooting from senior Chloe Moore-McNeil.
Despite the loss, the game was a step forward for the Badgers in terms of their competitiveness with high-level teams.
UW has played four teams that are either ranked or received votes plus another (Kansas State) that climbed into the polls after it faced the Badgers. The margin of defeat in those games was 29.6 points.
UW held Indiana, which had shot 53.0% in Big Ten play, to 44.4% shooting, though the Hoosiers connected on 10 of 20 attempts from three-point range.
The Badgers also won the battle on the boards, reached the free throw line more and once there shot a higher percentage.
“Coming into this game there was definitely a confidence and a belief that despite the fact Indiana was coming in and they’re 14th in the country, we’re coming in to compete against them,” Moseley said. “I don’t think there was any point where our team didn’t believe that we could be on the floor with them.”
What UW didn’t do was connect from three-point range (1 for 7) and the Badgers had two many empty possessions during the second quarter when Indiana turned a one-point edge into a 41-26 lead at the half.
The Hoosiers had 14 points off turnovers in the second quarter. They weren’t as successful in that regard in the second half, but after Halle Douglass beat the shot clock buzzer with a bucket that cut the IU advantage to 45-39 with 3 minutes 8 seconds left in the third quarter, the Badgers closed the quarter with three turnovers on their final five possessions.
Indiana’s 7-0 run stretched into the first 2 minutes of the fourth quarter and pushed its lead to 52-39. Wisconsin pulled no closer than 11 the rest of the night.
“I don’t think anything is a moral victory,” Moseley said, “but for us to know that we have the ability to be in these games with a team of their caliber and to be competing and have an opportunity to win it if we take care of business, I think that makes a statement to our team.”