Injuries leave Wisconsin women short-handed, comeback at Maryland falls short

Even though its rotation was down to its bare bones due to a couple of first half injuries, Wisconsin managed to make a run at Maryland Thursday.

The Badgers women’s basketball team cut Maryland’s 22-point lead early in the third quarter to six on two occasions in the fourth before losing steam and falling to Terrapins, 79-63, in front of 6,608 at Xfinity Center in College Park, Maryland.

The loss dropped UW to 13-14 overall and 6-11 in the Big Ten, but it remains in 10^th place and in position to have a bye for the first round of the conference tournament. Maryland (17-11, 9-8) strenghtned its hold on sixth place.

Sophomore Serah Williams (14 points, 10 rebounds) extended her double-doubles streak to 14 for Wisconsin. Senior Natalie Leuzinger (16 points) fell two points shy of her career high and sophomore Ronnie Porter added 15 points, four rebounds and five assists.

BOX SCORE: Maryland 79, Wisconsin 63

All three logged heavier minutes than usual to compensate for the losses of sophomore guard Sania Copeland, who suffered an apparent ankle injury less than 2 minutes into the game, and freshman guard D’Yanis Jimenez, who appeared to suffer an ankle injury with about 6 minutes left in the half. Neither player returned.

As a result, Wisconsin went with Williams, Porter, Leuzinger and seniors Halle Douglass and Brooke Schramek for the entire third quarter. Coach Marisa Moseley didn’t sub in the second half until the 5:14 mark of the fourth quarter.

Despite playing shorthanded UW whittled down that deficit by cutting down on its turnovers, finding space for Williams to operate after Maryland smothered her in the first half and connecting from three-point range and the free throw line.

Wisconsin went 3 for 6 in the quarter from three-point range after going 1 for 9 in the first half and hit eight of nine from the free throw line after getting no attempts during the first two quarters. Overall the Badgers shot almost 54% (7 for 13) in the third quarter after hitting 34.6% of its attempts in the first half.

Those improvements helped Wisconsin cut a 41-19 deficit at the 8-minute 47=second mark of the third quarter to 54-48 with 8:25 remaining in the game. Maryland, however, scored six straight points to push the lead back to double-digits and that is where it stayed the rest of the game.

The Badgers trailed by as many a 18 before the final buzzer.

More: The art of taking a charge and how it helped Wisconsin’s Natalie Leuzinger go from walk-on to starter