Badgers Win Final Exhibition Game
November 14, 2004 | Women's Basketball
The University of Wisconsin rounded out its exhibition schedule with a 74-64 victory over Minnesota State-Moorhead this afternoon at the Kohl Center. The Badgers evened their pre-season record at 1-1
The Badgers used their tough defense and superior ball-handling to pull out the win against the pesky Dragons. The UW forced 21 MSU turnovers on 12 steals while committing only 9 miscues in the game. Wisconsin also outshot Moorhead 45%-38% to make up for MSU's rebounding advantage (44-33).
The division-two Dragons surprised the Badgers and jumped out to an early 11-8 after making five of their first six shots. UW's defense clamped down on the Moorhead offense, however, and forced seven MSU turnovers over the next five minutes to spark a 14-2 run that gave the Badgers a nine-point lead, 22-13, with 11:23 left to play. The Wisconsin offense went cold at that point and could not hold onto the lead. The Badgers made only six of their final 19 shots of the half, and the scrappy Dragons battled back to twice tie the score before going into halftime down by two points, 35-33.
Wisconsin surged out of the locker room and took control of the action. UW's defense held the visitors to only eight points on three field goals over the first 12 minutes of the final frame. On the offensive end of the court, the Badgers distributed the ball efficiently as six different players found the basket during a decisive 28-8 run that pushed the lead to 66-41, the largest of the afternoon, at the 7:49 mark.
UW Head Coach Lisa Stone experimented with different combinations of players the rest of the way, and the Dragons got their offense back on track to whittle the margin down in the final minutes of the game.
'I told our team that we need to get used to and taste the feeling of success,' said Coach Stone. 'We worked the entire week on defensive transition coverage and [displaying] more intensity on defense. We came out with some fire in our eyes, and we made some adjustments defensively. We made progress and that 's good. The things that we needed to address we did.'
Forward Jordan Wilson led the Badgers with 19 points on 9-14 shooting. Freshman Jolene Anderson appears ready for the regular season and finished with 17 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Stephanie Rich added 12 points and five assists for Wisconsin.
Post players Jenny Thon and Jessica Fesemaier were the only Dragons in double figures with, respectively, 15 points and 11 points.
Wisconsin opens its regular season schedule this coming Friday, November 19 at 7:00 p.m. against the University of Southern Illinois at the Kohl Center.
