MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin women's basketball team (1-3) takes to the road for a string of three road games in the next five days. The first matchup of the road trip is a short drive to the east to face off against Milwaukee (2-3) on Wednesday. Tip time is 6 p.m. from the Klotsche Center on the Milwaukee campus, streamed live on ESPN+.
Here are five things to know before tuning in to this in-state contest
1. LAST TIME OUT: Wisconsin lost its third game of the season, falling at home vs. Chicago State, 71-63, in overtime on Monday. The Cougars outscored Wisconsin, 19-11, in OT, including shooting 9-12 from the free-throw line. UW staged a 17-point comeback to force overtime, including a final minute bucket from
Sydney Hilliard to tie the game at 52 and the send the game in overtime. Hilliard scored a team-high 20 points on top of a team-high seven rebounds and two steals with
Julie Pospisilova notching 15 points and two assists while shooting a career-best 10-14 from the free-throw line. Sophomore
Brooke Schramek tallied a career-high seven rebounds and three blocks, playing a career-best 27 minutes while
Lexi Duckett tied her career high with six points, shooting career bests of 2-5 from 3-point range. The guard also added career bests of two assists and one block in a career-high 30 minutes.
2. SURPASSING MILESTONES: With 20 points over the Cougars on Monday, junior
Sydney Hilliard surpassed 700 career points. The junior only needed seven tallies heading into Monday's contest and hit the 700 career point mark halfway through the second quarter by netting two free throws. Graduate student
Katie Nelson also hit a career achievement by hitting 400 career assists after dishing out five helpers against the Cougars. Nelson need five and she got five, hitting exactly 400 career assists by the end of Monday's game.
3. CAREER COUNTDOWN WATCH: Three Badgers are on the countdown watch over the Badgers' next couple of games with
Julie Pospisilova looking for two different milestones, including hitting 200 career rebounds and 400 career points. The junior needs seven points to reach the 400 mark and 19 rebounds to hit 200 career boards. Sophomore
Brooke Schramek is 32 points away from surpassing 100 career points in a Badger uniform and will look to build on her best game of the season against Chicago State on Monday. Hilliard is also looking to add to her accolades by being 13 rebounds away from 300 career boards.
4. SCOUTING THE PANTHERS: Milwaukee sits 2-3 on the season with two conference wins already under its belt, but the Panthers sit 0-3 in non-conference matchups so far this year. Wisconsin's in-state rival boasts wins over Wright State and Northern Kentucky in its last two outings after starting out the year 0-3. Sophomore forward Megan Walstad leads the Panthers in scoring, averaging 14.3 points per game to go along with 7.8 rebounds per game. Similarly to the Badgers, Milwaukee plays aggressive defense that sometimes lands the Panthers in foul trouble, including fouling 19-plus times in three out of five games. In addition, Milwaukee is a very strong free-throw shooting team, averaging 89.2% as a team. Both teams average very similar points per game, Wisconsin averaging 59 and Milwaukee averaging 58.8.
5. HOW TO WATCH: Wednesday's matchup is scheduled for a 6 p.m. tip-off on ESPN+ with tickets available
here. A radio stream will be available on Fox Sports 1070 AM as well as live stats available at UWBadgers.com. Fans can follow @BadgerWBB on Twitter for the most comprehensive way to keep up to date with the team.
