Badgers show moxie with Big Ten play ahead
MADISON – Progress doesn’t necessarily equate to winning.
That was the lesson to take from the 92-87 loss the Wisconsin women’s basketball team suffered to Florida State on Thursday night in front of 3,035 fans at the Kohl Center.
The loss was the fourth straight for the Badgers, who dipped to 3-6 overall, but in defeat they showed the kind of fight that they’ll need during the dog days of the Big Ten season. UW was beat up in the paint, displayed shaky ball-handling and decision-making at times and was hampered by the foul trouble of one of its top players.
Despite those hurdles, the Badgers cut a 66-42 deficit with 41⁄2 minutes left in the third quarter to two, 80-78, with 4 minutes 16 seconds left in the game.
“I’m proud of my team for how resilient they were in that second half, our belief that we could win that game coming out of halftime and really just showing a lot of grit, a lot of toughness,” UW coach Marisa Moseley said.
A record-setting night by Julie Pospisilova fueled the comeback. The senior guard finished with 32 points, four more than her previous career high. She was on fire in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
UW could have used a win, but Florida State (8-1), with its size, defensive pressure and three-point shooting, was a good primer for a team that opens Big Ten play at 1 p.m. Sunday against No. 10 Iowa at the Kohl Center.
So, with that in mind, here are three things to watch as UW embarks on the Big Ten season:
Pospisilova leading by example
Halle Douglass’ season-ending knee injury makes a Badgers squad that is the program’s youngest in 16 years even more reliant on inexperienced players. A veteran of Pospisilova’s caliber could take some of the heat off the youngsters.
She probably won’t put up big scoring numbers every night, but can stuff the box score. In addition to leading the team in scoring (15.1 ppg), she leads the team in assists (4.6 apg) and is tied for third in rebounds (5.0).
Senior Avery LaBarbera and Brooke Schramek will also be key in this regard as will Sydney Hilliard, who played her first game of the season Thursday after missing the first eight due to injury. However, as the player with the most experience in a UW uniform, Pospisilova would be a natural to ease her young teammates’ introduction to the league through her play.
“The last two games she’s had 27 and 32 and we don’t set any expectation about numbers around her, but it’s just about playing up to your potential and trying to give everything the team needs to try to be successful,” Moseley said.
Size vs. speed
The only player taller than 6-1 that Moseley used regularly during the first nine games was Serah Williams. The 6-4 freshman has shown good athleticism and touch while ranking third in scoring (13.4 ppg) and first in rebounding (5.8 rpg), but if she gets into foul trouble as she did Thursday, it could cause problems.
“The other side of it is they have to guard us,” she said. “When we’ve got four guards on the floor that’s tough.”
Will UW have a youth uprising?
Whether it was 32-point fourth quarter Thursday or a 13-point lead against Kansas State at American Family Field, UW has shown flashes of high-quality play. The Badgers, however, will need to avoid droughts, like the slow start Thursday or the fade against KSU.
“That’s a lot of new and as exciting as it is to fuse new talent at the same time it was how are we going to become a more cohesive group,” Moseley said. “Then you bring Syd back into the mix, who was injured. All of sudden we’ve got all these different moving parts and I think tonight we saw a glimmer of that all coming together.”