MADISON, Wis. – A 14-1 run over the last four-and-a-half minutes gave the Wisconsin women's basketball team its first Big Ten Conference win of the season. The Badgers (8-13, 1-7 B1G) downed Northwestern 58-46 in front of a season-high crowd of 5,110 in the Kohl Center on Sunday evening.
Wisconsin led for more than three quarters until Northwestern (9-12, 2-5) took its first lead of the game, 45-44, with 4:37 to play. A layup by Courtney Fredrickson gave Wisconsin a 46-45 lead with 4:10 remaining, an advantage it would not give up.
Marsha Howard scored six of her game-high 21 over the next two minutes to put the game out of reach.
Senior Cayla McMorris added 12 points, shooting 10-13 from the free-throw line.
Wisconsin shot 45.8 percent (22-48) from the field while holding the Wildcats to a season-low 29 percent (18-62).
Northwestern outrebounded the Badgers, 38-31, with Howard leading UW with nine boards.
The Badgers jumped on Northwestern early, shooting 54.5 percent (6-11) from the field to take a 16-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. UW's fire burned even brighter at the start of the second quarter, going on a 6-0 run for its largest lead of the game (22-7) with 8:42 to play in the half. Northwestern cut the lead to 39-22 with 27 seconds to go before a Howard layup gave the Badgers a 31-22 at the break.
An 11-2 Northwestern run over the first four minutes of the third quarter knotted the score at 33 apiece. Wisconsin led 40-37 at the end of three quarters and were up 44-37 with 9:13 to play before an 8-0 run put the Wildcats up 45-44.
Â
Turning Point
With Northwestern leading 45-44 with 4:37 remaining in the game, Courtney Fredrickson's reverse layup with 4:10 to play put the Badgers back on top 47-46. A strong defensive effort allowed the Badgers to go on a 14-1 run in the final minutes of the game. Wisconsin held the Wildcats to 21.1 percent (4-19) in the fourth quarter as they only scored one free throw in the final minutes. Â
Notes to Know:
- The Badgers snapped a nine-game losing streak to Northwestern with today's win. The win also stopped UW's seven-game losing streak.
- Wisconsin held the Wildcats to a season-low 29.0 percent (18-62) from the field. Northwestern also scored just 46 points, their second-lowest point total of the season. It was also the fewest points UW has given up in a Big Ten game this season and the second-fewest points allowed overall.
- Junior Marsha Howard scored a game-high 21 points, her third 20-plus game this season. She took a career-high 16 field goal attempts and tied her career high with 10 field goals made.
- Senior Cayla McMorris shot 10-13 from the free-throw line, tying her season best of 10 makes while setting a new season high of 13 attempts.
- Freshman Niya Beverley tied her career best with one 3-point field goal made.
- Sophomore Courtney Fredrickson scored six points to go over 400 points for her career.
Â
Straight from the Court
"What a great day in the Kohl Center to have so many young people here for National Girls and Women in Sports Day after having a clinic for them yesterday. We had a great start to get out to the 16-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. The two young women next to me (Marsha Howard and Cayla McMorris) I thought had second-half things that happened to them that they had to figure out how to bounce back from them. Cayla got hit in the eye. And Marsha Howard playing through a very hard assignment, getting in foul trouble but not letting it affect her when we put her back in the game.
"When you play somebody the second time in the Big Ten, everybody knows what you're going to run. Changing defenses, I thought we were active. When I talked to the team there were some small plays that don't necessarily don't show up on the stats sheet that were huge. I thought the basket once Northwestern got the lead to go up 46-45 and we came down and Courtney (Fredrickson) attacked and finished. We got a stop and Marsha came down and attacked, got one right in the paint, short little jumper. Then probably the biggest play in the game was Cayla McMorris going after an offensive rebound and fouling somebody out. It doesn't show up for Cayla for that.
"We talked about finishing. When you look at the fourth quarter, to be able to shoot 60 percent and get to the line 10 times and be able to hold Northwestern scoreless throughout that stretch once they got the lead and hold them to 21 percent in the fourth (quarter) and 29 percent for the game. Just proud and we can build off this."
Â
Up Next
The Badgers travel to Bloomington, Indiana, on Wednesday to take on the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall in a 6Â p.m. CT matchup.
