Dec. 31, 2009
Box Score | Boxscore 
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Poor shooting and a stingy Iowa defense halted the Wisconsin women’s basketball team as the Badgers fell to the Hawkeyes 61-51 on Thursday evening. The loss drops the UW to 11-3 overall and 1-2 in Big Ten Conference play.
“For us, I was disappointed in our offensive execution,” said Stone.” I thought defensively, we were relatively solid (though) you can’t put a team on the free throw line as many times as we did. Offensively, we were out of sync the entire game. Their zone bothered us. We just could not get in a flow.”
Wisconsin, which shot just 27.6 percent in the first half, finished shooting 33.9 percent for the game, scoring a season-low points. Iowa hit 41.3 percent from the field for the game, including an impressive 6-of-18 (33.3 percent) from 3-point range.
The Hawkeyes (8-6, 1-2) were 17-of-28 from the free throw line, with 23 attempts coming in the second half. Wisconsin got into foul trouble early in the second half, putting Iowa in the bonus with 13 minutes remaining and the double bonus with almost 11 minutes left.
The Badgers also turned the ball over 24 times, a season high, as Iowa had 12 steals. Wisconsin had 10 steals as the Hawkeyes turned the ball over 23 times.
“We need to be sound with the ball and not allow our offense and our offensive mistakes to be the best offense for Iowa,” said Stone. “I credit them – they turned us over 24 times.”
Alyssa Karel led all players with 20 points, her third straight game with 20-or-more points. Lin Zastrow added 10 points but the rest of the UW team struggled to score. The remaining Badgers went just 6-of-30 from the field.
“They’re a team that has injuries – they’re down to eight players,” said Stone. “They came right at us tonight. I give them a lot of credit for that. They’re tough.”
Kachine Alexander led Iowa with 21 points and recorded a double-double as she share game-high honors with 10 rebounds. Kamille Wahlin added 13 points and Jaime Printy chipped in 12 points for the Hawkeyes.
Wisconsin outrebounded the Hawkeyes 38-36, led by 10 from Tara Steinbauer. Zastrow added seven boards and Wurtz six rebounds for the Badgers.
The Badgers led 4-3 early but Iowa went on a 9-0 run to take a 12-4 lead with 13 minutes left in the half. All of the Hawkeyes points came on 3-pointers as they shot 4-of-12 from behind the arc in the first period. Iowa upped its lead to 19-8 with 9:33 remaining before the UW starters got back into the game.
Wisconsin used a 10-2 run to pull within three (21-18) with 2:21 remaining. The Badgers turned the ball over twice in the last two minutes of play as the Hawkeyes scored six unanswered points to take a 27-18 lead at the half.
“Iowa likes to run and take pretty good shots and they’re really good shooters,” said Stone of the first half of play. “We played their game – we tried to do the same thing. We were settling for outside shots and they weren’t going in.
“Down nine at half, playing the way we did and the type of tempo we played, I actually felt pretty good at halftime because I thought we could shore some things up – be more patient offensively, try to get more post play, get some touches inside, break it down a bit but it didn’t happen.”
Iowa outscored Wisconsin 14-4 early in the second half to take a 43-22 lead with 12:54 remaining. Alexander had eight of the Hawkeyes points during that stretch. The Badgers pulled within 13 (44-31) with 9:49 left and cut the lead to single digits (47-39) with 3:26 remaining.
Turnovers proved costly to UW down the stretch as three turnovers in a minute-and-a-half gave the Hawkeyes the ball, allowing Iowa to increase its lead to 52-40 with 1:27 to go.
A Wurtz 3-pointer cut the lead to seven at 55-48 with 38 seconds remaining but it was too little too late as the Badgers fell.
Wisconsin continues its road swing, playing at Illinois on Sunday. Game time is 3 p.m. from Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill.
“There’s things that we have to be better at,” said Stone. “It’s early in the Big Ten season and we want to make sure that we don’t allow one loss to turn into two and we’re still on the road on Sunday against Illinois.”
