Jack McLaughlin

Box Score

Charlotte CHA 1-1

Wisconsin WIS 1-0

Charlotte CHA

1-1

Final

Nov. 12, 2017

Wisconsin WIS

1-0

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	3	4	F
Charlotte CHA	7	12	22	25	66
Wisconsin WIS	19	33	11	17	80

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | November 12, 2017

Badgers strike gold in season opener

Wisconsin downs Charlotte, 80-66

MADISON, Wis. – Outscoring Charlotte 52-19 in the first half, the Wisconsin women's basketball team held on to win its season opener, 80-66, over the 49ers on Sunday afternoon in the Kohl Center.

The Badgers came out strong, leading by 33 at half and held back a second half surge by the 49ers to come away with the win.

Wisconsin was led by sophomore sharp shooter, Suzanne Gilreath, who had 20 points, 12 of which came from beyond the 3-point line. The Badgers held the 49ers to 37.3 (22-59) from the field while UW shot 48.3 percent (29-60).

UW also controlled the boards 44-32, including 13 offensive rebounds.

Sophomore forward Courtney Fredrickson was dominant off the bench, tying her career high with 18 points while adding a career best 11 rebounds. She also chipped in three assists as Wisconsin dished off 17 helpers. Sophomore Kendra Van Leeuwen led UW with five assists.

Senior Cayla McMorris also scored in double figures, adding 13 points.

After only four turnovers in the first half, Wisconsin faced some adversity with 11 turnovers in the second period.

It was over when...

Leading 19-7 after the first quarter, the Badgers outscored the 49ers 33-12 in the second quarter. Wisconsin was 7-8 (87.5 percent) from 3-point range, including a perfect 3-3 by Cayla McMorris. UW shot 81.3 percent (13-16) from the field to put the game out of range.

Notables:

The Badgers never trailed in their 80-77 victory.
Wisconsin out-rebounded Charlotte 44-32 behind a career-high 11 boards from Courtney Fredrickson. Fredrickson recorded her second career double-double as she tied her career best with 18 points
Wisconsin shot 52.6 percent (10-19), including 66.7 percent (10-15) in the first half, from the 3-point line in the win.
Sophomore Suzanne Gilreath finished just one off her career best for points with 20. She shot a perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line, a new career high.
Junior Marsha Howard tied her career high with nine rebounds.
Freshman Niya Beverley earned her first career start, scoring nine points while adding three rebounds, three assists and one steal in 32 minutes of play.
UW lost at Charlotte, 63-48, in last season's opening game, flipping the script in the 2017 meeting with a 14-point victory.

Straight from the Court:

Head Coach Jonathan Tsipis

Opening statement: "Definitely a game of two halves. I thought collectively as a team, we were aggressive in the first half. I thought the team did a great job of sharing the basketball, taking care of it. We only had four turnovers at halftime. When you make 10 threes you look at it and say, 'is it a live-by, die-by situation?' But I thought we got a lot of the threes off of good movement.

"Charlotte felt like they had to go to man-to-man but I think the proudest moment as a coach is seeing our team stick to the principles we're trying to do defensively and really rebound the basketball. I thought both Suzanne (Gilreath) and Courtney (Fredrickson) set a great tone for us. As soon as they subbed in they were aggressive, it wasn't just one pass and shoot. I thought Suzanne did a great job of getting out in transition and getting open so Niya (Beverley) and Kendra (Van Leeuwen) could find her.

"Courtney was just attacking and rebounding the basketball. She ended up with 1 (but) I think she probably had her hands on four or five other ones but that was all a part of the aggressive mindset.
"To hold a team that had 17 offensive rebounds on Friday night to six, I thought our defense took them a little bit out of what they normally like to do. I told our team, 'you're not going to have your best game beginning to end in the first game of the year.' Gives us room for a lot more progress. Great start for us, definitely something to build off of and right away in game two we'll look at this film and get ourselves ready for the great rivalry that is Wisconsin basketball with Green Bay coming in on Wednesday."

On Courtney's career-high rebounds: "To Courtney's credit, we talked at halftime on Wednesday about letting go a bad half, just being aggressive. This started in the second half of Wednesday for her, an aggressive mindset. She got a couple shots to go down, she rebounded it better, and that carries over. I think that's maturity, stepping out on that floor, it's not brand new except for the freshmen. That's the maturity part of things, to say when you're on the floor nobody cares after the first couple minutes. We need you to have that impact on the game, maybe even more when the ball's not going in. I thought she did a tremendous job with that tonight."

Courtney Fredrickson
On the mentality coming off the bench: "I would say same mindset, not different at all (from starting). I'm just coming out there trying to rebound as much as I can. I can always control my energy. Like coach says, always crash boards so that's really what I'm focusing on this year is getting more rebounds consistently. The ball goes in some times, sometimes it can't. In the exhibition game I struggled a little bit with that. Like I said, I can always control my energy, so same mindset."