Despite their loss to Michigan State, Wisconsin women’s basketball still had a great Senior Day.
But from the moment the game began, Wisconsin’s problems with scoring and turnovers—two old problems—resurfaced and set the stage for a Sunday afternoon 78-52 defeat to Michigan State in front of 4,542 fans at the Kohl Center.
The Badgers mishandled the ball 25 times, which allowed the Spartans to score 29 points. Apart from sophomore Serah Williams, who tied the Big Ten record for consecutive double-doubles set by Megan Gustafson, a former Iowa standout and native of Wisconsin, with 17 points and 15 rebounds, UW was unable to get any scoring from anybody else.
A total of 35 points and 12-for-38 (31.5%) shooting were scored by the remaining Badgers.Nevertheless, the effect of the ritual that preceded the game was not diminished by UW’s difficulties during it. Schramek remarked, “It was undoubtedly an emotional day.” “Today’s underclassmen really outperformed themselves in organizing and decorating the locker room.”
“I’ve said it all along: I think the hardest thing for me going forward will be not being able to hang out with these girls every single day.” It was quite difficult to accept that this was likely the last time this team would ever play together.
With the setback, Wisconsin (13-15, 6-12 Big Ten) still has a chance to finish in the top ten and receive a bye for the Big Ten tournament’s opening round, which gets underway on Wednesday at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Sunday night’s Purdue-Michigan game will determine the team’s seed in the bracket. UW receives a first-day bye if Michigan prevails. Wisconsin’s first tournament matchup is with Purdue if they win.
Michigan State, which is ranked fourth in the rankings, concluded the regular season with a record of 22-7 overall and 12-6 in the Big Ten. The team is getting votes in the USA Today Coaches poll.
The Spartans shot 49.1% (27 of 55) against a defense that ranked third in Big Ten play in opponent field goal percentage (.428), in addition to forcing turnovers.
Sania Copeland would have been beneficial on both ends of the court for Michigan State because of its scoring balance and ball-pressing skills. The sophomore missed Sunday’s game due to an apparent ankle injury sustained against Maryland. Wearing a walking boot on her right leg, she saw the game from the bench.
But the Badgers’ difficulties keeping the ball safe were too extensive.
“I feel like we self-inflicted a good portion of our turnovers, if we go back and look,” Wisconsin coach Marisa Moseley stated. “They were exerting pressure, but I believe there were instances where we could have perhaps taken it easier and taken a little more time.”
In the second quarter, Michigan State scored 13 points off of eight turnovers, and the game started to pull away from the Badgers. Ten fast break points and easy baskets enabled the Spartans to shoot 75% (9 for 12) for the quarter as a result of those turnovers.
Michigan State had a 15-point lead at the half. Wisconsin cut that lead to 45-35 early in the third quarter, but Michigan State extended its lead to 22 points at the start of the fourth quarter.
Through the rest of the afternoon, the Spartans led by a minimum of 21 points. Instead of looking ahead, believing in ourselves, and knowing that we are a team capable of breaking this press, Schramek stated, “I think in the press we started to second-guess ourselves, just beating us up and thinking about our previous mistakes.” We were, I believe, getting sucked into the negatives.
With 11 points on 3-for-4 shooting, Leuzinger led the Senior Day honorees. Schramek scored seven points and recorded four blocks, a career high. Vanderpool earned her first points of the season with two points, while Douglass finished with three points and three rebounds.
Despite having the option to play one more season with the exemption NCAA athletes obtained because of the pandemic’s interruption, Schramek chose to retire immediately.In addition, Vanderpool, a redshirt sophomore who will graduate in three years, has no intention of coming back.
Leuzinger has applied to the UW graduate program and may be able to utilize her COVID exemption, but she hasn’t given it any thought yet. Douglass intends to play again; however, Moseley stated that she wanted to spend her senior day with her recruiting class. Douglass missed the majority of the previous season due to a knee injury.
“I adore Senior Day,” expressed Moseley. “I would obviously love to win on Senior Day. That’s better, but in my opinion, celebrating the end of a four-year journey is about so much more than simply basketball and victories and losses. It’s a wonderful way to pay tribute to everyone who worked together over those four years, giving their blood, sweat, and tears.