MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin women's basketball team bounced back in the third quarter, but Indiana used a fourth-quarter rally to beat the Badgers, 78-54, on Sunday afternoon in the Kohl Center.

UW rallied from a 35-29 deficit at the half to tie the game five times in the third quarter and even take the lead twice.

"I think we battled for 29 minutes tonight. Indiana, they are an explosive team," head coach Jonathan Tsipis said. "I thought with about a minute left (in the third quarter), we just made some key mistakes. We allowed the ball into the paint. On action, I thought we had guarded better throughout the game and Jenn Anderson is very skilled and when you shoot 7-for-8, they were all within four feet.

"Tyra Buss' drives in the third quarter, I think that is where we had so many opportunities to keep her in front and she just kept willing her way there. We've got to have that will to get that stop because that's a huge momentum piece to take into the fourth quarter."

The Hoosiers (15-6 overall, 5-3 Big Ten) had a narrow 35-29 lead over the Badgers (5-16, 0-8) at the half, but the Cardinal and White came out firing on all cylinders.

Senior Kendall Shaw got the ball rolling immediately, nailing a shot in the paint 10 seconds into the third quarter. And from that, a fire was ignited in the Badgers.

Freshman Courtney Fredrickson blew past Hoosier defenders to hit a jumper and a 3-pointer in a span of 30 seconds in the first two minutes of the second half. Fredrickson's explosion cut the Hoosier lead down to one (37-36), the closest the score had been since the two squads were tied 6-6 four minutes into the first quarter.

Roichelle Marble kept the UW momentum going, tying the game at 39 with a massive 3-point bomb at the 7:30 mark in the third quarter. Indiana's Karlee McBride answered back with a jumper but the Badgers tied it up once again courtesy of another jumper from Fredrickson. Fredrickson had only scored one basket before the half and then nearly single-handedly keyed the 11-6 run that brought Wisconsin back into the game.

Freshman Kendra Van Leeuwen used a smooth back-handed layup to steal the lead, 43-41, with 6:11 left on the clock in the third quarter. It was UW's first lead since the 7:04 mark in the first quarter.

With the momentum swinging in the Badgers' favor, Wisconsin's 3-point queen took full advantage. Suzanne Gilreath drained a 3-pointer, her second of the game, to put the advantage back in Wisconsin's corner, 46-43.

Alexis Gassion brought the Hoosiers back up once again with an old-fashioned 3-point play that knotted the score at 46. Wisconsin took its last lead of the game on the next play when senior Avyanna Young was fouled coming down from an offensive rebound and sank one free throw (47-46) with four minutes to play in the period. IU went on a 6-0 run to make it 52-48 but Gilreath knocked down one of her signature treys to once again pull UW within one point (52-51) with one minute to go.

However, Indiana found the spark they needed to gain back its energy with an unanswered 5-0 run eat the end of the third that carried the Hoosiers' drive into a tumultuous fourth quarter.

IU outscored UW 21-3 in the final quarter with the Hoosiers were going to the free-throw line 18 times and hit the basket 13 times, including 4-for-4 from Buss in that period only.

Wisconsin started on a rough note in the first period but immediately turned it around for the second. The Badgers only had one point off of second-chance shots in the first and none off of turnovers, while Indiana had six second-chance points and nine points off turnovers. UW stepped it up in the second quarter, tallying five points off giveaways and two second-chance points compared to Indiana's three.

Junior Cayla McMorris', Wisconsin's leading scorer for the ninth game this season, went 2-for-2 in the first period but went off big time in the second quarter. She hit 4-of-5 from the field in just the second period and led all players with 13 points at the half.

"Cayla (McMorris) got us started, had a great first half, I thought Courtney (Fredrickson) picked that part up in the third quarter but when you look at the controllables, did we battle harder than we did on Wednesday night against Michigan State? Absolutely," Tsipis added. "I thought we battled but when you give up offensive rebounds and teams score off of them. I'm not quite sure, and there could've been a couple of three-point plays. But when you give up 11 offensive rebounds and you score 22 second-chance points, to me that quickly looks like you scored off of all the offensive rebounds."

UW outscored Indiana 19-15 in the second period, sparked by McMorris' nine points as the Badgers shot 64.3 percent (9-14) from the field in that period alone.

Indiana's Buss led all players with 19 points while three other Hoosiers were in double figures. McMorris led the Badgers with 13 and was followed closely behind by Fredrickson and Gilreath,
who each collected nine points.

The Hoosiers narrowly outrebounded the Badgers 31-28, which was the lowest amount of rebounds UW has had all season. Van Leeuwen led Wisconsin in the boards category for the second time this season, pulling down five. She also dished out a game-high five assists.

UW had a season-high 27 fouls, which led to Indiana going to the courtesy stripe 31 times and amassing 23 makes, both marking the second-highest totals by a Wisconsin opponent this season.

The Badgers held their Big Ten foe, who was ranked second in the Big Ten for 3-point field goal percentage, to a 17.6 3-point percentage (3-17), marking the second-lowest 3-point makes, attempts and percentage by a UW opponent this year.

Indiana outshot Wisconsin 42-24 in the paint, 20-5 off of turnovers, and 22-7 in second-chance points. The UW bench outscored IU, 21-10.

Wisconsin travels down I-90 to meet up with Northwestern (16-5, 5-3) for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Wednesday in the Welsh-Ryan Arena.