Badgers Outgun Broncos, 104-91
December 16, 2004 | Women's Basketball
The University of Wisconsin women's basketball team continued to use its home court advantage Thursday night as it defeated Santa Clara 104-91 in a shootout to improve to 5-0 at the Kohl Center this season.
Freshman Jolene Anderson guided UW (5-4) to victory once again, shooting an incredible 66.7 percent (10-of-15) for a game-high 29 points, including 15 in the first half. She also had eight rebounds and six assists.
Also in double figures for the Badgers were freshman Janese Banks (23 points) and senior Stephanie Rich (19). Banks also pulled down nine rebounds, while Rich made five steals.
Ashley Graham churned out 27 points'15 from beyond the arc 'to lead the Broncos (3-5). Teammate Quinn Thomas added 27 points but also committed a game-high five turnovers.
'A great victory for our team,' head coach Lisa Stone said. 'We once again showed some character down the stretch against the most offensive-minded team we've seen.'
Anderson was particularly strong in the first half, shooting 5-of-7, including 2-of-2 from 3-point range. She even made a no-look pass to Banks, who made a layup on the right side for a 13-6 lead with 16:14 to go.
After Santa Clara called a timeout, the team countered with a 12-3 run to take an 18-16 lead. UW and SC traded baskets from then on, leading up to a 46-44 score at the half
Both teams came out firing in the second frame, with the Broncos making three 3-point baskets in the first 2:35 to take a 57-55 advantage. Overall, Santa Clara was 14-of-34 (.412) in 3-point shots, and used the long ball to stay in the game.
Turnovers, however, proved costly to SC, as the Badgers converted 24 points off of their opponent's 15 miscues. In the last 2:37, the Broncos committed two and missed six of seven shots as UW went on the decisive 11-2 run.
'It was like playing Horse out there for a while, trading baskets,' Stone said. 'We answered back with some great perimeter play here.'
The Badgers will take a break before returning to action against Purdue at 7 p.m. Dec. 30 at the Kohl Center, in what will be both teams' Big Ten Conference opener.
Game Notes
UW improved to 1-1 all-time against Santa Clara ' the win improved Wisconsin's home record this season to 5-0 ' the Badgers scored their most points since they had 107 on March 14, 1999 vs. Siena ' Janese Banks ' 23 points and nine rebounds were both career highs ' Santa Clara 's 14 3-point baskets broke the Kohl Center record of 11, set Nov. 24, 2002 by UW-Green Bay ' the Broncos' 34 3-point attempts topped the 32 mark by Loyola on Dec. 5, 2000
Post-game Quotations
UW HEAD COACH LISA STONE
Opening statement:
'A great victory for our team. We once again showed some character down the stretch against the most offensive-minded team we've seen. I don't know if I've ever coached against a team that has taken 34 three-point shots. They're going to do well. They play hard. They get up in you. It was like a Horse game ' it was like playing Horse out there for a while ' trading baskets. They made some tough shots, but so did we. We answered back with some great perimeter play here.'
'Our two freshmen that put up 52 points between the two of them is something you'd like to see on a nightly outing, but we're realistic about things as well.'
'Some things that step off the stat sheet are the rebounds ' we out-rebounded this team 51-28 and only had 16 turnovers. What a great game for the fans. It was trading baskets back and forth, and if that can't inspire people to come and watch us play, I don't know what will. It's great to be undefeated at home ' we're on a little bit of a streak right now and hopefully we can keep things going.'
'Our game goals were to score more than 75, which we did, and hold them under 65, which we did not. So obviously it was a shootout. Those were some tough shots, and when you live and die by the 3 ' you get up by 9, and I think we got up by as much as 11 in the first half, and how quickly things can turn. Maintaining intensity, finishing the game ' I'm not so concerned about the score as I am proud of our team for hanging on.'
SANTA CLARA HEAD COACH MICHELLE BENTO-JACKSON
Opening statement:
'Obviously when you give up 104 points it doesn't show much on the defensive end and you don't give yourself much of a chance to win a ball game. The two things that were glaring were rebounding and obviously free throw attempts by Wisconsin. Felt that they got second opportunities in the rebounding and the result, unfortunately, ended up often times in us fouling, which put them on the free throw line.'
'We got more uncontested shots and I felt like they were packing in the paint a little bit, but they knew coming into this game that we're a three-point shooting team and there's no question about that. That is one of our strengths. However, in the second half, I thought we relied solely on the three-point shooting. Some of it was given opportunity due to penetration, which was good, but we 've got to get ourselves to the free throw line as well and we've got to get the ball inside. We've got to get some production on the inside and we 've got to get ourselves to the free throw line.'
'Coming in we knew that pretty much every position was going to go through either Rich's or Anderson's hands, and that was one of our focus points going into the game.'
