Brooke Schramek’s game winner lifts Wisconsin over South Dakota State and to 3-0 record

MADISON – “It’s not pretty, but it’s gritty”

Wisconsin women’s basketball coach Marisa Moseley couldn’t think of the men’s coach she saw say those words first, but she understood how he felt following her team’s 66-64 victory over South Dakota State Tuesday night in front of 2,913 at the Kohl Center.

The Badgers shot 26.7% in the fourth quarter and scored just two buckets in the final 5 minutes but still managed to improve to 3-0 for the first time in five years.

The game-winner came on a layup senior Brooke Schramek scored off a pass from freshman D’Yanis Jimenez with .8 seconds left. The victory came over a Jackrabbits squad picked to win the Summit League and without the usual aid from sophomore Serah Williams (11 points), who played 11 minutes during the final three quarters due to foul trouble.

“We have battled through people being sick, bugs going around, people coming back from injury, being young, learning as we go, but one thing that we have continued to show is a will to win and a resiliency and for that I’m really proud about where we’re headed,” Moseley said.

Sophomore Ronnie Porter finished with 17 points, six assists and five steals for the Badgers. Schramek added 14 points and a team-high six rebounds. Jimenez posted nine points and sophomore Sania Copeland added eight points and four assists.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Game-winning play shows value of point guard combination

Porter and Jimenez often play in the lineup at the same time, splitting time initiating the offense and playing off the ball. The value of their partnership was on display on the game-winning play.

Wisconsin inbounded the ball with 23.1 seconds left and

Porter started the play with about 9 seconds left and used a screen from Schramek to get matched up against SDSU 6-2 sophomore Brooklyn Meier and then passed to Jimenez. The Jackrabbits switched defensively leaving Meier matched up against the 5-8 freshman. Jimenez crossed over Meier near the top of the key and almost lost her balance as she got into the lane before drawing Schramek’s defender.

That left Schramek open for the game-winner.

“She found a quick little pocket,” Schramek said of Jimenez. “I knew we were running out of time and was wide open on the left side. That’s my favorite side, so I was like I need to make this layup. I need to do this for the team.”

South Dakota State called a timeout to advance the ball to half-court but didn’t get off an attempt to tie or win the game.

Ronnie Porter is delivering a well-rounded game

It’s only the third game, but no Badger has filled the stat sheet better than the team’s 5-foot-4 sophomore. Among the career-highs she established were points, assists and three-pointers (three).

She is tied for the team lead in scoring (12 ppg), rebounds (7.7 rpg) and assists (4 apg.) and leads the squad in minutes (33 mpg) and steals (4.7 spg).

“When I got out there I don’t want to say they underestimate me for their size, but for my grit,” she said. “I just go out there and play and do the unexpected, defensively staying aggressive because I’m undersized and offensively just making them guess every time.”

UW shows strides protecting the ball

For the second straight game Wisconsin had a long stretch of the game when it didn’t turn the ball over. The Badgers finished with 16 turnovers, though six came during the first 5 minutes of the game.

In the second half UW turned it over just twice in the third quarter and twice in the fourth quarter. As a result, SDSU scored just four points off turnovers in the second half. Wisconsin’s ability to protect the ball also denied the Jackrabbits easy transition points. SDSU had just nine fastbreak points, four in the second half.