Feb. 25, 2010

Box Score  |  Box Score  |  Notes   |  Gameday Blog

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Senior Rae Lin D’Alie led the Badgers with a career-high 21 points as the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team defeated Penn State 71-39 at PSU’s Bryce Jordan Center on Thursday night. Wisconsin’s 32-point victory margin marked the team’s largest of the season.

Wisconsin (20-8, 10-7 Big Ten) clinched a first-round bye in next week’s Big Ten Tournament with the victory as the Badgers are now guaranteed to finish in the top-five in the conference standings with one game remaining.

UW posted its best field goal percentage of the season at 57.7 percent (30-of-52) while holding Penn State (16-11, 8-9 Big Ten) to just 27.3 percent (12-of-44).

Along with her 21 points, D’Alie also led all players with eight rebounds, six assists and four steals. Alyssa Karel and Anya Covington each added 10 points while Tara Steinbauer had nine points and five boards. Lin Zastrow finished the night with eight points, four rebounds and two blocks.

Penn State was led by Tyra Grant’s 15 points, all of which came in the second half. Nikki Greene also posted 11 points and led the Nittany Lions with seven boards.

Wisconsin held a commanding 40-13 halftime lead, fueled by hot shooting at 18-of-24 from the field (75 percent). Penn State shot just 28.6 percent on 6-of-21 in the opening half. D’Alie led all players with 13 points, four assists and three steals.

The Nittany Lions closed the gap to 19 early in the second half, but the Badgers pulled away, extending their lead to 26 midway through the half and eventually leading by as many as 36 at 71-35 with one minute remaining.

The Badgers held the advantage in rebounding with 30 boards to Penn State’s 28. UW had just 11 turnovers, which led to eight PSU points, while Wisconsin capitalized on 23 points off 17 Penn State turnovers.

Penn State’s 13 points marked the fewest the Badgers have allowed in one half all season and the fourth-lowest total all-time in the UW record books.

The Badgers jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the game’s first two minutes. Penn State finally got on the board with 17:43 to go, on a Nikki Greene layup.

Wisconsin led 13-6 with 15:12 to play in the half, and Penn State failed to score for the next 4:38 while UW rattled off another nine straight points, leading 21-8 with 10:44 to play. The Badgers held the Nittany Lions to just five points through the rest of the half, closing the opening stanza with an 8-0 run and taking the 40-13 lead into the locker room.

The Badgers shot 12-of-28 (42.9 percent) in the second half and never looked back.

Wisconsin hosts Iowa in its regular season finale at the Kohl Center on Sunday. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m.

Coach Lisa Stone Quotes
“This team was so locked into the game plan. The two practices leading up to this game, as well as our shoot-around today, you talk about how we’re having fun together and we’re locked in and we’re focused, but when that ball went up and it’s Senior Night and you hold Tyra Grant scoreless in the first half – granted she scored 15 points in the second half – despite that, our defense and our transition, our rebounding and our bench production, our offense, we shot 75 percent in the first half. That has to be a noteworthy record.”

“What a tremendous game by our whole team. Rae Lin was outstanding. She was on fire offensively for us. We did a good job taking care of the ball, and we rebounded well. It was a tremendous performance on the road, but it all comes down to following the game plan and staying focused, staying together. When you’re playing like this at the end of the year, you want to keep it going.”

“This team is locked into what we’re doing. The credit goes to the players. They are a special group that wants a lot this year. This is a team of servants, and they’ll do whatever it takes.”

“We shot a high percentage because our shot selection was very good in the first half, and I thought, for the most part, that carried over into the second half.”

“I’m so proud of our seniors. I thought Teah Gant was outstanding defending Tyra Grant. Those two (Rae Lin and Teah) are going to have a special day on Sunday, but we are far from being done playing. We have one more game left, and we want to send our seniors out with another victory on Sunday.”

“I love this team, and it’s in large part the love I have for those two seniors. Sunday will be a great day for us and one where we want to play some great basketball.”