Box Score
 | | |  | 1 South Carolina 67, Wisconsin 44
2014 Junkanoo Jam
Freeport Grand Bahamas • Attendance: 167
Box Score | Box Score  |  | |
| | 1st | 2nd | Final | Wisconsin
| 18 | 26 | 44 | South Carolina
| 31 | 36 | 67 | | Stats at a Glance
| WIS | SC | | FG Percentage | 28.3% | 43.8% | | 3-Point FG Percentage | 36.4% | 25.0% | | FT Percentage | 63.6% | 571.% | | Offensive Rebounds | 8 | 13 | | Defensive Rebounds | 26 | 28 | | Total Rebounds | 34 | 41 | | Turnovers | 19 | 10 | | Assists | 10 | 20 | | Steals | 1 | 12 | | |
Nov. 27, 2014
FREEPORT, Bahamas -- The Wisconsin women’s basketball team put up a tough fight but eventually dropped its first-ever meeting with No. 1 South Carolina, 67-44, at the Junkanoo Jam in Freeport, Bahamas Thursday afternoon. The Badgers held the top-ranked Gamecocks to their lowest scored points of the season.
“It’s a little consolation when you get beat by 23 points,” Wisconsin head coach Bobbie Kelsey said about holding South Carolina to its lowest score. “ I’m proud of the kids, they worked hard. Their team is just a little bit bigger and a little bit faster and they’re the No. 1 team in the country for a reason.”
| Fast Facts | | • Wisconsin held No. 1 South Carolina to their amount lowest total points this season | | • Johnson led all players with 13 points | | • Whyte went 8-for-10 from the free-throw line | |
The Badgers showed resilience in the first half after taking the lead two times and tying the game a total of four times. The game was tied up for a total of six minutes and seven seconds and Wisconsin held the lead over their top-ranked opponent for a combined one minute and fifty-five seconds.
Senior Jacki Gulczynski scored the first points of the game with a smooth 3-pointer only twenty seconds into the first half. Gulczynski was very comfortable beyond the arc, sinking another one at 16:59 to put the Badgers up 6-4, their last lead of the game.
The 66.7 three-point field-goal percentage marked a new season high for Gulczynski who went two-for-three in the game.
Wisconsin cooled off toward the latter part of the first half allowing South Carolina to go on a 10-0 run (25-14) until Michala Johnson was fouled and sunk both of her free throws.
Despite a strong start, the Badgers committed 14 turnovers in the first half while the Gamecocks only turned it over five times. UW turned the ball over only five more times in the second half to finish with 19 but still almost doubled South Carolina’s total of 10.
In the first half, seven of Wisconsin’s 18 points came off of South Carolina’s five turnovers. The Gamecocks only scored four points off the Badgers 14 giveaways.
Johnson started the second half off with a jumper from the right side to bring the Badgers within 11 (31-20) but that was quickly trumped by an 8-0 run from the Gamecocks to give them a strong lead (39-22) with 14:21 remaining.
The Gamecocks took their largest lead of the game (54-26) at 9:21 off of a 3-pointer from Asia Dozier who pushed the team’s lead to 28 points. The Badgers couldn’t recover from the deficit and finished within a 23-point margin, 67-44.
Sixteen of South Carolina’s 67 points came off of turnovers while 32 of its shots were put up from inside the paint. South Carolina’s bench made huge contributions with the reserves donating 39 points.
Dakota Whyte went an impressive 8-for-10 from the free-throw line and had a season-high 80 percent free-throw percentage. Whyte notched a season-high 12 points and seven rebounds.
South Carolina’s leading scorer Tiffany Mitchell, who averages 17.7 points per game, was held to just seven points in the contest, but the Gamecocks used distributed scoring to up their lead with eight players scoring at least seven points.
Johnson led all players with 13 points and also grabbed a season-high eight rebounds.
Nicole Bauman returned to the court after sitting out two games with an injury and put up six points for the Badgers.
Wisconsin, who has averaged 6.3 blocks per game in just this season, was held to only one block from Whyte.
“We hung with them for a little while there in the first half,” Kelsey added. “We traded baskets and then they got a couple of transition baskets that put them ahead by 10 or 12 points. That’s when it got out of hand but we fought back and made some buckets but it wasn’t enough.”
After facing their toughest opponent yet, the Badgers are looking forward to the next game.
“We’ll be better from this game,” Kelsey said. “We have a game tomorrow so we are just going to get ready for that one and see what we can do.”
Wisconsin returns to the court on Friday against East Carolina at 4:45 p.m. CT in the consolation round of the Junkanoo Jam.
| 
