Badgers Fall To Boilermakers in Big Ten Opener
December 28, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Purdue shut down the Badgers Friday night in West Lafayette, Ind., keeping the Big Ten 's leading scorer, Jolene Anderson, to just six points, winning 65-48 in the Big Ten season opener. Rae Lin D'Alie's season high 14 points were not enough to stay in the game, and the Badgers dropped to 7-4 overall and 0-1 in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers improve to 5-6 overall and 1-0 in the conference.
In a game punctuated by long scoring lulls, Purdue kept the high-scoring Badgers to their second lowest halftime score of the season leading 29-24. With the exception of two ties, the Badgers trailed throughout the first half committing 10 turnovers and shooting just 28 percent. The errors and misses kept UW off the scoring column for a six minute period allowing the Boilermakers their largest lead of the half 19-11 with 9:18 left.
Janese Banks hit two consecutive 3-pointers to help UW tie the game at 21 with 6:49 left. The Badgers didn't score again until a Danielle Ward free throw with 2:48 left to trail 27-22. Leading scorer Jolene Anderson was held to just two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field.
Purdue opened the half outscoring UW 18-7 to take its greatest lead of the game on back-to-back 3 pointers by Natasha Bogdanova 48-31 with 11:47 left. The Badgers continued to struggle with scoring in the second half shooting just 34.4 percent.
Janese Banks hit her third 3-pointer to start a seven-point scoring run and Anderson hit her third bucket of the night to bring the Badgers within 52-42 with 7:34 remaining. But Purdue converted on six-straight free throws to pull ahead 60-44 with 4:43 left. UW held Purdue to just two field goals the last 4:43 but scored only one itself.
Entering tonight's game, Wisconsin was averaging 72 points a game, while Purdue averaged just 52. Although Purdue played good defense in the game, UW was its own victim, taking bad shots, failing to convert and missing opportunities.
A difference in the game was seen at the free throw line. An aggressive Purdue made 10-of-17 from the charity stripe, while Wisconsin went just 3-of-4 from the line.
Wisconsin Post-Game Notes
' Tonight's loss is the 10th straight time UW has lost to Purdue and the 20th straight time the Badgers have lost in West Lafayette, Ind. (UW has not won a game on the road at Purdue since 1984). Wisconsin has won at Purdue just three times in program history.
' Jolene Anderson's double-figure scoring streak stopped at 39 straight games, finishing with just six points. She has now scored in double figures in 100 of 105 career games.
' Danielle Ward recorded her third career double double tonight.
' The Badgers entered the game ranked second in the conference in offensive output. Tonight UW recorded its lowest output of the season.
' Anderson needs just 74 points to tie the UW women's career scoring record of 1,994 set by Barb Franke in 1996.
' Anderson, the leading scorer in the Big Ten (20.0), was held to a season low six points.
' Rae Lin D'Alie finished with season high 14 points.
' Tonight was the first time UW and an opponent tied in the rebound category. Both teams finished with 39 boards.
UW Head Coach Lisa Stone Quotes
On Wisconsin unable to get into a rhythm: "We did not get in the right rhythm. It was very disappointing. I thought our first half was very disappointing. In fact, an embarrassment tonight. We turned it over which led directly to their transition baskets. They were able to build confidence early, they schooled up one-on-one to the basket, they did a good job of getting us in foul trouble and took advantage of that. We just had poor shot selection."
