Jan. 14, 2010
Box Score | Quotes | Notes
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Wisconsin women’s basketball team rallied from a 14-point deficit in the second half to upset No. 20 Michigan State, 48-45, on Thursday night. The Badgers improve to 14-4 overall, the best start under Coach Lisa Stone, and 4-3 in the Big Ten Conference.
"I'm so proud of this team," said Coach Lisa Stone. "We talked to our team at halftime about the X factor. We gave up 10 offensive boards in the first half. We were getting beat on hustle points, we missed four straight free throws and we were only down by four.
"It became a defensive slugfest. That was as physical a game that we've played the whole year. We dug in, got it done. I'm proud of our Badger men for their win last night. This was very similar in how we had to grind it out and win on the road."
The Badgers trailed 39-25 with 14:16 to go in the game before going on a 16-4 run to tie the game at 43 with 3:08 remaining. Senior Teah Gant scored 10 second-half points, including three straight field goals, to key the run. Lin Zastrow made the front end of a one-and-one to put the UW up 44-43 with 2:45 left but the Spartans went back up 45-44 off a layup from Lykendra Johnson with 2:03 left in the game.
"Teah Gant was magnificent in penetrating the gap and giving us a lift," said Stone."She got us going. At one point, she was our only scorer for a little bit."
Freshman Taylor Wurtz scored two of her game-high 16 points with 52 seconds left to put Wisconsin up 46-45. A foul on Johnson and double technical was called with 30 seconds remaining. No free throws were shot for the technical and Tara Steinbauer went to line for the bonus and made the front end to put the Badgers up 47-45. Alyssa Karel had a steal with 12 seconds remaining and Wurtz added a free throw with six seconds to remaining to ice the win.
In addition to Wurtz and Gant in double figures, Alyssa Karel added 10 points. The Badgers shot just 32.7 percent for the game, including 27.3 percent from 3-point land.
The Spartans scored only one field goal in the last 12:15 of the game and shot just 28.6 percent for the game. Allyssa DeHaan led the Spartans with 12 points.
State outrebounded the Badgers 45-37 as Johnson led all players with nine boards. Karel led Wisconsin with six rebounds.
Wisconsin went 7-of-10 from the line in the second half to finish at 56.3 percent (9-of-16) for the game.
The Badgers turned the ball over only 10 times while the Spartans had 16 turnovers. Wisconsin had 10 steals, led by three from Karel.
Wisconsin swept Michigan State for the first time 2001 and won in East Lansing for the first time since 2002.
Other Big Ten scores:
Ohio State def. Illinois, 72-61 (Columbus, Ohio)
Indiana def. Michigan, 62-60 (Bloomington, Ind.)
Minnesota def. Purdue, 74-47 (Minneapolis)
