Wisconsin Survives K-State, 56-53
November 24, 2006 | Women's Basketball
The Wisconsin women's basketball team is off to its best start under fourth-year head coach Lisa Stone after defeating Kansas State 56-53 Friday in Lady Rebel Shootout. The Badgers are 5-0 for the first time since the 1998-99 team started off 5-0.
UW meets the host school UNLV in the championship final at 5:30 p.m. CST. The Rebels were 70-40 winners over Elon. The game can be heard on WTSO AM 1070 with Mike Heller, or on Yahoo.com.
'What a great Thanksgiving win,' Lisa Stone, Wisconsin head coach, said. 'We beat a very well-coached team. They are smart and are a good basketball team. As poor as we started and as poor as we shot, we did what we needed to do to win the game.'
It was well-balanced scoring once again for the Badgers with junior Jolene Anderson leading the squad with12 points, seven boards and five steals against K-State. Classmate Janese Banks scored nine and also pulled down six rebounds while rookie Mariah Dunham had 11 points and six boards. Ward led Wisconsin on the glass with a team-high 11 rebounds and also chipped in seven points.
Wisconsin overcame a cold shooting day in which the Badgers shot just 29 percent (16-55) from the floor. Wisconsin made just five buckets in the second half for a cold 23-percent shooting. UW also converted just one-of-10 of its shots from behind the arc but outrebounded K-State 42-40.
'We had good looks at the basket, we just did shoot well,' Stone continued. 'But we did enough defensively to hold on for the win. We made enough adjustments and did what we had to do to win. This is big for our program.'
Wisconsin's Rae Lin D'Alie nailed two free throws to make it a two possession game for the Badgers, who led 54-50 with just 18 seconds left in the game. K-State's Claire Coggins responded on the next possession with a 3-pointer to make it 54-53 with just 13 ticks left on the clock.
After a timeout, D'Alie was sent to the charity stripe again. The 5-3 freshman hit her first free throw but missed the second. The Wildcats picked up the board and beat the Badgers down the court. Unfortunately for K-State, Kim Dietz missed a layup on the other end. Dunham grabbed the board and was fouled with just three seconds left the play. She made the first
Shalee Lehning's half-court shot at the buzzer was too powerful and Wisconsin survived 56-53.
In the first half, K-State jumped out to a 7-0 advantage and led by as many as nine at two different points in the opening 20 minutes. A 15-4 Badger run in the final minutes of the period gave put Wisconsin up by three, 30-27, at the break. The Badgers forced 15 turnovers while outrebounding the Wildcats 23-13 in the first half alone.
Dietz led Kansas State (3-1) with a game-high 14 points.
