Wisconsin Takes Three-Game Road Trip West
November 27, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Wisconsin (0-2) will embark on a three-game road swing playing in the Pepperdine Tournament in Malibu, Calif., over the Thanksgiving break. The Badgers will return to junior center Emily Ashbaugh's home area with a game at the University of Washington in Seattle on Monday.
Wisconsin meets UT-Arlington (1-1) of the Southland Conference at 9 p.m. CST in the second game of the Pepperdine Tournament in Malibu. Host Pepperdine (0-2) of the West Coast Conference meets Big East Conference representative St. John's University (1-1) in the opening game at 7 p.m. Friday.
Washington (1-1) of the Pac-10 meets St. Bonaventure in the opening round of the Seattle Times Classic Friday-Saturday in Seattle before entertaining UW on Monday.
RADIO/TELEVISION
The games on the West coast will be broadcast live on WTSO Radio 1070 both Saturday and Sunday with play-by-play by Aaron Sims. Friday UW plays the 9 p.m. CST matchup and Saturday will be at either 4:15 p.m. or 7 p.m. Monday's game at Washington will be on WIBA 1310 AM at 9 p.m. The pregame begins one-half hour before tip. The games are also available over the internet at UWBADGERS.COM, just click on Game Day and women's basketball. There is no television coverage.
WISCONSIN COACH JANE ALBRIGHT
Beginning her ninth season, Jane Albright earned her 150th victory at Wisconsin Jan. 13, 2002, and is the winningest women's basketball coach in Wisconsin history with a 154-88 (.636 percent) record. She has led UW to a school record eight consecutive winning seasons, seven post-season tournament bids and four 20-win seasons. Wisconsin has attended five NCAA tournaments and was the 2000 WNIT Champion and 1999 WNIT runnerup champion. She began the year ranked 53rd among winningest active coaches in the NCAA, and 47th for all-time Division I wins.
ROUGH SEASON OPENING
Playing time together is what the Badgers need after opening the season 0-2 for the first time since 1989. UW returned to Coach Jane Albright's old stomping ground Friday for its season opener with Northern Illinois University. But there wasn't anything truly familiar about the occasion especially the result. Albright, NIU's winning coach during her 10-year tenure, saw her young Badgers lose on a last second shot to a veteran NIU squad, 47-49. The game openend NIU's new Convocation Center.
Wisconsin's home opener Sunday saw improved play but a loss none-the less to UW-Green Bay, 77-52. Wisconsin fell behind early when the Phoenix hit 8-of-11 three pointers in the first stanza but remained in striking distance down six at the half, 34-28. The veteran Green Bay team turned on the after-burners though forcing UW into 24 turnovers and finishing with a Kohl Center record .611 percent on 11-of-18 three-pointers to give Wisconsin its worst loss ever to the Phoenix.
INJURY REPORT
The Badgers will be without co-leading scorer Leah Hefte who injured her right shoulder Tuesday in practice. Hefte's status is doubtful for the weekend. The senior tri-captain led the Badgers with 11 points at NIU and she is averaging 9.0 points per game. She is one of UW's main three-point threat hitting 2-of-3 on the season.
TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL NOTES
WISCONSIN'S KEY PERSONNEL
' The Badgers returned two starters from last season 's 19-12 team that qualified for it's second-straight NCAA tournament. The top returning scorer is starting center Emily Ashbaugh (Woodinville, Wash.) who averaged 6.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. She is averaging just 4.0 points per game so far this year but adds 5.0 rebounds per game.
' The other starter returning is senior Kristi Seeger (Stoughton, Wis.) who leads the team with 9.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Last year she contributed 3.8 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. She is hitting .545 percent from the floor.
' Albright continues to experiment with the best combination of players as a starting unit. Sophomore guard Stephanie Rich (Crawfordsville, Iowa) has doubled at point and shooting guard, but failed to score on 0-12 shooting at NIU. She had seven points against UW-Green Bay after having 16 points in each of the exhibition games.
' Senior Leah Hefte (McFarland, Wis.) came off the bench to lead UW in scoring at NIU with 11 points. She is the second-leading scorer after two games with a 9.0 points per game average has the best field goal percentage on the team hitting 8-13 for .615 percent including 2-of-3 treys. She injured her shoulder Tuesday and is doubtful for the weekend.
' Sophomore Ebba Gebisa (W. Lafayette, Ind.) was the second top returning scorer (5.0 ppg) and has started every game averaging 6.5 points and 7.0 rebounds. In the second exhibition she scored 20 points including making 10-of-12 foul shots.
' Ebba's sister, 6-7 junior center Lello Gebisa (W. Lafayette, Ind.) came off the bench to score 16 points in both exhibition games and added 16 rebounds against Lithuania. She started at NIU and had eight points, nine boards and four blocks. She is averaging 7.0 points and 7.0 rebounds in two games and leads the team in blocks with six on the season.
' Freshman point guard Ashley Josephson (Onalaska, Wis.) is the sixth player off the bench averaging 7.0 points, .5 assists and 1.0 steals after in her college season debut.
WISCONSIN TEAM NOTES
' The Badgers are outrebounding opponents by seven, 38.5 to 31.5.
' Senior tri-captains, Leah Hefte and Kristi Seeger, are leading on the court as well as Wisconsin's top scorers averaging 9.0 points per game.
' Wisconsin is shooting a dismal .356 percent from the floor and just .214 percent from beyond the arc. Wisconsin's post players are just 13-39 for .333 percent.
' UW is shooting a respectable 22-30 or .733 percent from the charity stripe.
' Wisconsin's 24 turnovers against the UW-Green Bay defense elevated the average to 22.0 in two games this season compared to just 15.0 per game by the opponents.
' The last time a Wisconsin team started 0-2 was 1989-90.
' UW-Green Bay's 11-of-18 three-pointers set Kohl Center opponent marks for three-point goals made and for best three-point percentage at .611 percent.
' Wisconsin's 52 points versus UW-Green Bay tied the Kohl Center mark for fewest points.
' The home-opening loss to UW-Green Bay Sunday was just the 15th in the Kohl Center (52-15) and the 21st home loss for Coach Jane Albright (89-21) since 1994-95.
Looking back at last week
LAST TIME OUT: Wisconsin 47, Northern Illinois 49
A last-second shot by Northern Illinois' Monique Davis gave the Huskies the go-ahead basket to spoil Wisconsin's season opener, 49-47 in DeKalb, Ill., Friday night. With the game tied at 47, the Badgers turned the ball over with 12 seconds left allowing Davis her last second heroics.
Moments before, Wisconsin took its first lead of the game, 47-45, on two free throws by Kristi Seeger with 45 seconds left. The Badgers had trailed by nine, 43-34, with 7:03 left in the game. Leah Hefte had five points to spark a 9-0 run that tied the game at 43 with 3:26 left.
Maybe it was the season opening jitters or the new rims in the just-opened NIU Convocation Center, but Wisconsin mustered just .259 percent from the field including just 23 percent in the first half. Known for its sticky defense, NIU kept the Badgers off balance with tipped balls, tie-ups and double-teamed UW's post players. The Huskies never trailed until the last minute of the game and had built a nine point lead in the first half, 29-20 lead with 1:17 left. Jennifer Youngblood had 14 of her game-high 19 points in the first half.
Wisconsin was unable to sustain any offense with its three post players combining for just 4-21 or 19 percent for the game. NIU had scoring problems as well, suffering through a seven minute lull in the second half while allowing the Badgers to catch up.
The Badger senior leadership led the way on the scoreboard with Seeger and Hefte registering double-digits. Seeger tallied 10 points, while Hefte totaled 11.
LAST TIME OUT: WISCONSIN 52, UW-GREEN BAY 77
The Wisconsin women's basketball team fell to the UW-Green Bay Phoenix, 77-52, Sunday to drop to 0-2 on the season while the Phoenix improve to 1-1.
The Badgers kept it close in the first half, with sophomore Ebba Gebisa converting a three-point play to bring UW up 9-7 in the first five minutes of play. But a 9-0 Phoenix run, on three-straight three pointers gave the Phoenix the definitive edge with a 34-28 hafltime lead. Green Bay hit eight of 11 three-point attempts by halftime, and finished with a Kohl Center record 11-of-18 for .611 percent for the game.
The gap continued to widen as the Phoenix lit up the basket. Senior forward Kristy Loiselle led Green Bay with 20 points, going four-for-four from three-point territory.
Wisconsin was not able to get any closer than within six points. The squad went 10-for-26 from the field, shooting 38.5 percent in the second half and had 24 turnovers.
The defeat marked the widest point spread in a loss versus UWGB in Badger history.
WISCONSIN CAPTAINS
Seniors Kristi Seeger of Stoughton, Wis., and Leah Hefte of McFarland, Wis., and junior Emily Ashbaugh of Woodinville, Wash., were voted by the team as captains this season.
UW STARTING LINEUPS
Games Record Lineup (F'F'C'G 'G)
1 0-1 EGebisa, LGebisa, Ashbaugh, Seeger, Rich
2 0-1 EGebisa, Seeger, Ashbaugh, Hefte, Rich
BADGER SIGNEE
Badger Coach Jane Albright announced the signing of Sasha Reaves, a 6-0 forward, to a national letter of intent Thursday. Reaves, from Mullins, S.C., becomes the first UW recruit from South Carolina.
A three-time Class AA All-State performer, she averaged 22.6 points, 12.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists as a junior. Reaves has played varsity and started all but one game since the eighth grade. She was the first player in South Carolina history to start every game and win a state championship as an eighth grader.
A 2002 adidas All-American, she was a two-time Toast of the Coast Player of the Year, and the Region VII AA Player of the Year. She was also named the Murtle Beach Sun News Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002. Her career stats include 1,742 points and 1,088 rebounds which equates to 17.7 points and 11.1 rebound averages in 99 career games. The team record since she began participating is 74-6.
WISCONSIN COACH JANE ALBRIGHT
Jane Albright, also known as Coach 'A', is the winningest coach in Wisconsin history. Now in her ninth season, she is the second most veteran coach in the Big Ten.
' UW'S ALL-TIME WINNINGEST COACH Albright became the Badgers' all-time winningest coach midway through her 7th season on Feb. 11, 2001. She began the year ranked 53rd among winningest active coaches in the NCAA, and 47th for all-time division I wins.
' EIGHT WINNING SEASONS 'Coach A' has led the Badgers to a program-first eight consecutive winning seasons including six of the 10 best records in school history. Prior to her arrival, the Badgers had one winning season in the previous 10 years (record of 102-176 for .367 percent from 1984-1994).
' SEVEN POST SEASON BIDS UW has had five NCAA tournament bids, two WNIT bids, and four 20-win seasons in the last seven years. The 1999 and 2000 Badgers advanced to the WNIT championship games and won the title in 2000. Wisconsin advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA tournaments in 1995 and 1996, for its first ever NCAA wins. The Badgers lost in the 1st rounds in 1998 and 2001.
' 20-WIN SEASONS Albright has had nine 20-win seasons in the last 12 years, both at Northern Illinois (1984-94, 188-110), and four at Wisconsin including the school's first back-to-back 20-win seasons (1995'20-9; 1996 '21-8)
' USA COACHING Albright won a gold medal while the head coach of the 1996 USA Williams R. Jones Cup team, the elite second U.S. international team selected after the Olympic squad.
