UW Wraps Up Non-Conference Play with Win
December 15, 2006 | Women's Basketball
The Wisconsin women's basketball team (11-2) wrapped up its non-conference season with an 86-66 win over Harvard Friday at the Kohl Center. Juniors Janese Banks and Jolene Anderson led the Badgers with 24 and 22 points, respectively.
Wisconsin's 11 wins already match the total number of victories from last season. The team's 11-2 start is the best under fourth-year head coach Lisa Stone and the best since the 2001-02 team opened 16-1. UW also is an undefeated 8-0 in the Kohl Center this year.
The Badgers are off next week for finals and a holiday break and will not play again until Dec. 28.
Wisconsin shot an impressive 53.4 percent (31-of-58) from the field against Harvard. In addition to the 20 point efforts from Banks and Anderson, junior Caitlin Gibson aided in the scoring effort with 12 points. Danielle Ward finished with six points while four players (Sarah Ingison, Ivana Mijalcevic, Teah Gant and Brittany Heins) each tallied five scores.
UW also outrebounded the Crimson 34-28 and has won the battle on the glass in every game. Mariah Dunham came off the bench to lead the Badgers on the boards with seven and Anderson finished with six caroms. Rae Lin D'Alie also recorded eight assists, the most in a game by any Badger this season.
The Badgers, who are 11-0 when leading at halftime this season, were up 41-27 at the break. Banks scored 20 of her 24 points in the first half alone and was 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Anderson also tallied 13 scores in the first stanza.
Wisconsin and Harvard opened to a 5-5 tie before the Badgers went on a 16-6 run to lead by 10, 21-11 at the 14-minute mark. The Crimson would get back within six with 12:23 to play but the Badgers responded and took a 12-point lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Badgers will open Big Ten play Dec. 28 against Northwestern in the Kohl Center.
Post-Game Notes
' Tonight's attendance was 4,994.
' Tonight was the first meeting between Wisconsin and Harvard. The Badgers are 4-1 against schools from the Ivy League.
' Wisconsin is an undefeated 8-0 in the Kohl Center this season. The last time the Badgers were 8-0 at home was the 2001-02 season. That team won its first nine games at home.
' Wisconsin's 11-2 start under head coach Lisa Stone and the best since 16-1 that same season.
' The Badgers earned their 11th win of the season over the Crimson. That already ties the number of wins during all of last season.
' Wisconsin shot .534 (31-of-58) from the field, marking the fourth time this year UW has shot 50 percent or better.
' With a 34-28 advantage on the glass against Harvard, Wisconsin has outrebounded all 13 opponents this year.
' Wisconsin led Harvard 41-27 at halftime. The Badgers are 11-0 this year when leading at the break.
' Junior Janese Banks (24) reached 20 points or more for the seventh time in her career and the fourth time this season. Jolene Anderson (22) has accomplished that feat for the 28th time of her career and the fifth time for the year.
' There have been three games where the Badgers have had two 20-point scorers and all three of them were by the duo of Banks and Anderson. The others were at Air Force and UW-Green Bay.
' Freshman Rae Lin D'Alie's eight assists were the most by a UW player this year.
' Wisconsin's 20 3-point attempts vs. Harvard marked a season-high.
' The Badgers finished with 23 assists which tied season high. Harvard's 20 helpers were a season-most for an opponent.
Post-Game Quotes
Wisconsin Head Coach Lisa Stone
On heading into the Big Ten schedule: 'It's a great, positive start. We need this 13 day break. If you look back at the teams we have played, six of those teams were in the postseason last year. That 's where we're trying to be. I am very proud of us. We are playing well at home and I really like that. If we can maintain that it will put us in a good position in the Big Ten.'
On the play of Harvard: 'I have the utmost respect for Kathy [Delaney-Smith]. She does a great job. That team's record is not indicative of how good they are. They have played a tough schedule, they are very well coached, and you can see that. They shoot it well, they screen well, they compete till the end and they have nothing to hang their heads about.'
On Janese Banks and Jolene Anderson: 'They certainly carried us and they did the same thing for us the other night in Green Bay. I can't say enough about those two. They are both fantastic players and they make other people around them very, very good.'
Harvard Head Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith
On the game-plan coming in to play Wisconsin: 'We tried to concentrate on us. We're a young, new team and Wisconsin 's young, but they seem to be connecting a little bit better than we are. We tried to start out with a zone ' 10 (Janese Banks) killed us, so we switched to a triangle and two, which seemed to bother them for a while. They made an adjustment in the second half by rebounding pretty well. We didn't do anything special that we don 't normally do in our system. We were trying to get our game together. We 're in a sort of cycle of we can't get that win yet. We have a pretty tough non-conference schedule for a sophomore team, and two of our sophomores didn 't even play last year so they're really freshman. We're extremely young and we've got to concentrate on us right now.'
On Harvard's defense: 'I thought we had some kids on our team that made some defensive errors that I didn't expect them to make. One of them was a senior who was just pretty off tonight. You can 't be off against Wisconsin. It's the best start in their history ' or in a long time. Lisa does a great job and 41 (Jolene Anderson) is a great player. You can't give her as many looks as we gave her, and we can't let 10 (Banks) shoot three or four straight shots from the corner. That's just bad defense.'
