Wisconsin Dominates Southern Miss, 88-37
December 01, 2006 | Women's Basketball
The Wisconsin women's basketball team (7-1) shot a season-high 56.9 percent from the field in a dominating 88-37 win over Southern Mississippi Friday at the Kohl Center. Junior Jolene led the Badgers with a double-double performance which included 24 points and 13 rebounds. It was the second double-double of the season for Anderson and the 13th of her career.
Wisconsin's 55-point margin of victory was the largest under fourth-year head coach Lisa Stone.
In addition to Anderson's double-double performance, three other players reached double digit scoring. Danielle Ward and Mariah Dunham each put up 14 points while Janese Banks added 11. Dunham's 14 scores were a personal-best. Both Ward and Banks aided in the rebounding effort with seven boards apiece.
Wisconsin had a solid defensive effort as well, limiting the Golden Eagles to just 32 percent shooting from the field. The Badgers also had a 44-20 advantage on the glass and have outrebounded all eight opponents this season.
The game was evenly played from the start and was knotted at 14 with 11:36 to play in the first half. Wisconsin then went on a 15-2 run over the next four and a half minutes to lead 29-16 with 7:40 remaining in the half. Wisconsin led 45-22 at the break.
Liz Biland led Southern Miss (3-5) with 10 points and five rebounds.
The Badgers continue its four-game homestand with a 1:30 p.m. game Sunday against Kansas in the Kohl Center.
Post-Game Notes
'Tonight's attendance was 4,798.
'This was the first meeting between Wisconsin and Southern Mississippi.
'Wisconsin is an undefeated 4-0 at home this season. The 2004-05 Badgers started off 5-0 on their home floor.
'Southern Mississippi's 37 points were a season-low for Badger opponents. Both UW-Milwaukee and Central Connecticut tallied 45 points.
'Wisconsin's 51-point win was the largest margin of victory under fourth-year head coach Lisa Stone. That shattered the previous high of 33 points, which happened three times under Stone, including twice already this year.
'The Badgers shot 56.9 percent (37-65) from the field, their highest mark this year. Their 37 field goals and also were a season-high. In addition, the squad's 23 assists and 10 fouls were season bests.
'Wisconsin also had a 44-20 advantage on the boards. The Badgers have outrebounded all eight opponents this season.
'Junior Jolene Anderson finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds to mark her second double-double of the season and 13th of her career.
'Rookie point guard Sarah Ingison set a career-high with six points, all in the first half. Her previous personal best was three against Western Michigan.
'Freshman forward Mariah Dunham set a career high with 14 points. She had 11 earlier this year against Kansas State.
'Sophomore Christine Spencer is undergoing further evaluation concerning a hip injury that has affected her since preseason. Her status is week-to-week.
Post-Game Quotes
Wisconsin Head Coach Lisa Stone
Opening Comments: 'I'm very proud of our basketball team for responding after a long trip out West. We just talked about the great things that happened on a long road trip. We had tremendous togetherness, chemistry; we had a lot of fun together. We've seen a lot of parts of the country already this season. And there's nothing better than coming back to play in the Kohl Center and after the 14-14 tie in the first half our defense really cranked it up and spear-headed open offense and offense in the open court.'
'Jolene obviously was stellar with her double-double. Mariah was fantastic, in terms of coming off the bench, giving us 14. Danielle had a lot of nice looks on the inside. You can see that she can run and she didn't foul out today. She played decent defense. The players at halftime wrote a note on the board saying offensively they wanted to slow down their brains. We went really fast and had some opportunities to score some easy baskets. But as we pulled away it was because of our defense. You saw us change up our defense a little bit near the end of the game. But a great team and we're looking forward to building some momentum in the season.'
On the first eight minutes: 'The team was wound up in the locker room. They 're young and energetic and laughing. And I like that because they're loose. We were more than ready to play tonight. And to be back home, in our home gym in front of our home fans. We were moving fast, our brains were really going fast. We just needed to settle in a little bit, take some better shots, find some better screens offensively. And defensively really lock down. And we did that.'
On preparing for Sunday's game: 'The difference with this basketball team this year is that they're in it for each other; they're in it for the team. They want to win anyway they can. You can see our team play defense strong together, sharing the ball. And if someone's hot, we'll find them. I think that's certainly a great personality of this team. We'll be ready. We played one Kansas team and we'll play another one a week later (Sunday)."
Southern Miss Head Coach Joye Lee McNelis
Opening Statement: 'You really don 't quite understand (Wisconsin's) defense, particularly their half court defense ' how good it really, really is. They do a great job overplaying passing lanes. They have a lot of deflections; they either get steals or they get tons of deflections which create steal opportunities, which results for them in easy baskets. I thought they did a great, great job tonight and I say hats off to them. I think they 'll have a great run at the Big Ten title. Obviously they've got a lot of confidence going in their direction and I think that's a huge plus for them. '
'As for our team, I think we came to war with a BB gun and we didn't have any BBs in them. We left them at home.'
'I thought we had a good game plan and it lasted for about four minutes. We felt like we had to be able to guard their posts. We were small in stature. We didn 't have a lot of size inside so we had to really be able to double down and I thought our scheme worked very, very well. We tried to face guard Jolene (Anderson) and she didn't get any touch in those first few minutes of the ball game. Then we had to make defensive adjustments when we had to sub people in and throw the ball all over the floor, and in turn they got momentum.'
