MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin women's basketball suffered a tough loss to Idaho State, 42-35, in the start of a three-game home stand.

"When we talked yesterday as a team about Idaho State, we talked about a toughness that they had," head coach Jonathan Tsipis said. "That even though they didn't have a winning record, they were really good on the glass. They weren't shooting it great but they just kept coming after you.

"One stat that just stood out to me was that they had 17 offensive rebounds and scored 16 points. We had 12 and scored three. I think up and down the board, we talked about how they play defensively, that we had to constantly be in a position where you were ready to attack, ready to shoot is, ready to drive it."

The Badgers (3-7) had a slow start but led at the half.

The Bengals' (3-5) led by four points (9-5) in the first period with just under four minutes to play. Suzanne Gilreath hit a 3 pointer and Malayna Johnson connected on an old-fashioned three-point play to put the Badgers up 10-9 with 2:53 on the clock. Roichelle Marble capped an 8-1 run with a buzzer-beating jumper to finish off the quarter with a 13-10 UW advantage.

The second quarter was just as tough of a battle as the two teams were tied at 14-14 until Idaho State took a 17-14 lead (3:45) when the Badgers were suffering a nearly five-minute scoring drought.

After falling behind, the Cardinal and White jumped back in front behind another 3-pointer from Gilreath and a jumper from Johnson that gave them a 21-19 lead at the half.

The Badgers started the third quarter strong with a layup from senior Avyanna Young just 18 seconds in. Neither team scored a field goal until Idaho State's Bianca Thacker broke the seal at the 4:28 mark to bring the Bengals within three (27-24). A jumper from ISU's Irene Vicente tied the game once again, 28-28, with just one minute to play in the third quarter.

"In the third quarter when we had the lead and I thought the zone was effective and they worked the shot clock, I thought we weren't strong mentally," Tsipis added. "I think we hoped they would miss as opposed to contesting it. We've got to be tougher. We've got to put our kids in a position."

Wisconsin was outscored 9-8 in the third period, scoring 6-10 from the free-throw line while making just one field goal.

"I'm a big believer that when a kid takes a shot they have to believe it's going to go in. If you have any doubt in your mind it's a disadvantage, it's a disservice to your teammates. They have to think you're going to miss because that's how I expect us to offensive rebound."

A fastbreak layup from Courtney Fredrickson in the first minute of the fourth quarter put the lead back in Wisconsin's favor, 31-28. The Bengals used a 9-0 run to go up 37-31 until a made free throw from Young cut the Bengals' lead to five (37-32) with 2:29 to play.

Kendra Van Leeuwen put a stop to the run and dry spell from the field with a basket from beyond the arc with just 43 seconds left on the clock. However, four made free throws in the final minute of the game by the Bengals clinched the 42-35 victory.

After shooting 50 percent from the field in the first quarter, Wisconsin was just 6-of-34 the rest of the game to connect on 25 percent (11-44) in the contest. Idaho State finished shooting 26.8 percent (15-56) from the field.

But the Wisconsin bench was the story of the game as Johnson and Gilreath combined to produce 40 percent (14 points) of the Badgers' scoring.

Johnson and Young led the Cardinal and White with eight points apiece while three different Badgers pulled down a team-high five rebounds.

It was a physical game and the Badgers took advantage, stealing the ball away a season-high 13 times. Fredrickson, Marble, McMorris and Van Leeuwen each had two swipes.

UW struggled with turnovers on the night, giving the ball up 24 times and allowing 16 points off of turnovers. However, Idaho State also struggled to hang on to the ball, giving up 21 turnovers and 17 points off the giveaways.

"Understanding how to build upon what we did across the whole game on Sunday at Illinois State has to be carried over," Tsipis said. "I thought we had a good practice yesterday. I thought we were competitive. I thought we were aggressive offensively.

"Tonight we wanted Idaho State to hand us the game. We talked this whole season about getting better game to game, practice to practice. We took a step back tonight after getting a road win on Sunday. They only thing I know to do as a coach is get to the film and work with our team tomorrow and get their heads up and get us ready for Thursday."

Wisconsin is back in action on Thursday at the Kohl Center when it hosts Mississippi Valley State at 7 p.m. Fans can purchase five tickets for only $10 using the promo code 5FOR10. Click here to purchase.