MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin women's basketball team fell short in the 12th-annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge, losing to Duke, 60-53, Wednesday night at the Kohl Center. The Badgers are now 6-6 all time in the Challenge.
 
Wisconsin (6-2) came out hot grabbing their largest lead of the game, 8-1, with 5:50 left in the first quarter.
 
The Badgers outscored the Blue Devils in three of the four quarters, but it wasn't enough to overcome a second quarter drop when Duke outscored Wisconsin 21-9.
 
After being down 30-19 at the half, UW was able to come within six points, 34-28, on a shot from freshman Imani Lewis in the paint with 1:13 left in the third.  Duke would outscore the Badgers 4-1 the remainder of the period to lead 38-29 after three.
 
The Blue Devils took their largest lead of the game at 54-36 with 4:29 left in the game, but the Badgers rallied within nine points (58-49) with 1:43 to play. Wisconsin also trailed by only nine at 60-51 with 58 seconds remaining but couldn't cut the lead any further until senior Marsha Howard connected in the paint with nine seconds left for the final score.
 
Howard grabbed her third double-double on the season, tallying 17 points and 10 boards. Lewis also scored in double figures for the seventh time this season, adding 11 points.
 
UW shot for 36 percent (18-50) from the field, including 18.8 percent (3-16) from 3-point range. Wisconsin got to the free-throw line more than twice as many times as the Blue Devils, hitting 14-23 for 60.9 percent.
 
Duke connected on 43.1 percent (25-58) from the field, including 23.1 percent (3-13) from 3-point range, and 77.8 percent (7-9) from the free-throw line.
 
The Blue Devils dominated off the glass in the first half, outrebounding the Badgers 24-15. UW battled back in boards in the second half to finish with just a seven-rebound deficit, 38-31.
 
Both teams recorded 20 turnovers in the game as both teams had nine steals. The Blue Devils also outscored Wisconsin 40-28 in the paint.
 
Duke was led by Onome-Akinbode-James, who recorded 14 points and had 14 rebounds.

 

And one for @CallMe_Poodah
Converts on the three-point play! pic.twitter.com/SBnpRdBhUX

— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerWBB) November 29, 2018

 

Fun Facts

• Senior Marsha Howard recorded her third double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds. The senior now has eight double-doubles in her career. Howard shot a career-best 5-5 from the free-throw line.
• The Badgers were outrebounded for the second straight game as Duke finished with a 38-31 advantage in boards.
• Freshman Jasmine Hale recorded a career-high three steals and tied her career high with four rebounds.
• Junior Suzanne Gilreath came off the bench in the third quarter to spark the Badger offense. The 5-foot-4 guard made two 3-pointers to tie her season high of six points.

  

Straight from the court

Head coach Jonathan Tsipis
"I thought we started tonight's game with great energy and defensively we were in great spots, but I thought we let our frustrations on the floor be a little bit contagious and let it get away from us.

"We're going to continue to get better, I trust that, but with whoever we have on the floor, whether it's veterans or youth, we've got to be stronger when times aren't going well."

On finding the right lineup: 
"Understanding that when we put people in, they've got to play at both ends and we were trying to search for a lineup where we could be aggressive and rebound as well as be efficient on the offensive end."

Junior guard Kendra Van Leeuwen
On struggling offensively tonight
"Duke is a very good, lengthy team. We just need to rebound the ball better. Especially getting the ball pushed in transition – it starts with a rebound. That means all five players boxing out and crashing the boards. We also wanted to get the ball inside more. Lastly, we just need to take care of the ball. We need to do a better job of finding the right pass." 
 
Freshman forward Imani Lewis
On facing an aggressive, big Duke team
"The main challenge was to work the high post. Their bigs played behind me most of the game. It gave me the advantage to go to the ball all game. I had to seal them off and not let them come around me. But mostly, it is all mental. I have to be able to adjust to these changes in game because there is always going to be something different thrown at me."
 

Next up

The Badgers have nearly a week off before taking on Marshall on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Kohl Center.