WBB: Wisconsin rides hot second half shooting to all-important win over Northwestern
The Badgers are ALMOST locks to make the Big Ten Tournament now!
On Senior Day at the Kohl Center, the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team outlasted the Northwestern Wildcats, 73-68, to win their fourth Big Ten game of the season. It was UW’s second win a row and it almost assuredly earned them a berth to the Big Ten Tournament in March.
Thanks to Tess Myers going 3-of-3 from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter, UW pulled out a huge win for their postseason chances. Here is my full breakdown and analysis:
Final Score
Wisconsin Badgers (13-14 overall, 4-12 Big Ten): 73
Northwestern Wildcats (9-16 overall, 2-13 Big Ten): 68
Four Factors
eFG%: 48.5
Turnover%: 17.3
Off. Rebound%: 22.0
FTA/FGA: 24.6
Key Stats
FG%: 43.1 (28-of-65)
Opp. FG%: 36.7 (22-of-60)
3P%: 53.8 (7-of-13)
Opp. 3P%: 27.3 (3-of-11)
FT%: 62.5 (10-of-16)
Opp. FT%: 70.0 (21-of-30)
Points Per Possession: 0.973
Opponent Points Per Possession: 0.919
Rebounds: 37 (nine offensive)
Opponent Rebounds: 35 (11 offensive)
Turnovers: 13
Forced Turnovers: 12
Team Leaders
- Halle Douglass: eight points (3-of-5 FG, 1-of-2 3P), seven rebounds, one assist, one steal, +5
- Serah Williams: 15 points (6-of-19 FG), five rebounds (one offensive), four assists, three blocks, even (fouled out)
- Carter McCray: 22 points (9-of-15 FG), 11 rebounds (six offensive), one steal, -1
- Ronnie Porter: 10 points (4-of-10 FG), six rebounds, eight assists, one steal, +5
Northwestern Team Leaders
Taylor Williams: 17 points (3-of-11 FG, 11-of-12 FT), 11 rebounds (three offensive), three assists, one block, -5
Caileigh Walsh: 18 points (6-of-15 FG, 2-of-7 3P), eight rebounds (one offensive), one assist, three blocks, two steals, +10
Caroline Lau: six points (2-of-5 FG, 1-of-2 3P), seven rebounds, seven assists, two steals, even
Three-ish Thoughts
This game got off to an interesting start as both teams played limited defense (both squads ended the quarter shooting over 52% from the field) to start. The Badgers’ defense was the first to show up, holding Northwestern to three points (one field goal, one free throw) over the final 4:42 of opening quarter, and that stretch proved crucial to UW winning the game.
How, you may be asking? Well, at 4:43 of the first quarter Melannie Daley made a layup to give the ‘Cats a two-point lead but by the end of the quarter Wisconsin was up five. If you’ll note the final score again…Wisconsin was also up five when the final horn sounded.
Game-deciding sequences don’t always occur at the end of the game, folks!Despite fouling out and having five turnovers, I thought that Carter McCray had an excellent game. She was absolutely battling on defense against much bigger players and, as always, on the offensive glass.
She always seems to be in the correct spot when a shot caroms off the rim and even if she doesn’t get her hands on the ball first, she’ll routinely rip it out of her opponent’s grasp for a jump ball or turnover.
McCray, who came off the bench in this game so Halle Douglass could start on Senior Day, was especially important in the second quarter. Wisconsin struggled to score the entire 10 minutes, but McCray had eight points, which kept Northwestern from building a lead larger than three points.
She won’t get a lot of national recognition, but she is definitely one of the most impactful transfers in the Big Ten this year and she still has two years of eligibility remaining.Another important sequence in this game was the final 3:30 of the third quarter. Douglass had made a free throw 30 seconds prior to tie the game at 40 and it was clear that whoever ended the third positively would have a big advantage in the fourth.
Ronnie Porter, who hadn’t scored since the beginning of the first quarter, took the ball hard to the hole on a missed switch by Northwestern for a layup, which gave UW the lead back, then Serah Williams swatted a Northwestern shot, and finally…there was Perfect Basketball.
Douglass secured the ball after Williams’ block, passed it to Porter who pushed it up the floor, and found a sprinting Williams in the paint. Williams was cut off by a diving NU defender, which left Lily Krahn open on the wing and, without breaking stride, Williams bounced it to Krahn who was pure from deep. I’ve watched the highlight of this play (linked above!) roughly 1,000 times today.
Northwestern called a timeout but the damage had been done. Wisconsin had the momentum and entered the fourth with a double-digit lead.Despite that momentum, which isn’t a real thing as further proven by the beginning of the fourth quarter, Northwestern was able to slowly chip away at UW’s lead. Even with their two leading scorers, Caileigh Walsh and Taylor Williams, both had four fouls entering the quarter, the ‘Cats cut the lead down to three with over half of the fourth to play.
While NU never got closer than three, UW’s inability to step on Northwestern’s throat and make the fourth quarter academic was frustrating. Tess Myers was the main reason that Wisconsin held on to win this one, scoring her first points of the game on a huge three right after the ‘Cats got within three. She ended the fourth 3-of-3 from deep and Wisconsin needed every one of them!With Walsh limited to 28 minutes due to the foul trouble, Northwestern was forced to rely on backup bigs Grace Sullivan and Tayla Thomas more than they probably wanted to. It is certainly worth noting that Walsh was +10 in her minutes while Sullivan and Thomas were a combined -18 in their 22 minutes.
QUICK THOUGHTS: I loved Wisconsin getting out and running in this one, scoring 21 points on the fast break; UW shot 7-of-13 from three and 14-of-29 on layups lol; the refs didn’t have their best showing in this one, but thankfully it didn’t end up affecting the outcome; I like Northwestern’s Caroline Lau a lot, she’s a good point guard; Wisconsin won Lily Krahn’s minutes (21) by 15 points; Serah Williams subbed out of the game with 1:05 left and didn’t sub back in…it looked like she briefly went to the locker room, but I couldn’t tell for sure. Hopefully nothing to worry about!
A special Senior Day shoutout to Halle Douglass and Natalie Leuzinger. They came back for one more year and their leadership has helped the Badgers manage a difficult season on, and off, the court. Leuzinger is a Wisconsin kid and Douglass is a UW legacy and they both deserved to have their Senior Day end in a victory.
Final Thought
After running the numbers I feel confident in saying that regardless of what happens over Wisconsin’s last two games…they are going to make the Big Ten Tournament. Now, I don’t think this is the situation that the Badgers wanted to be in to start the season, but it is still worth celebrating because two weeks ago it didn’t look like this team was going to make it.
Per @terptalkwbb on Twitter, the Badgers don’t have a locked in seed yet, but could finish either 14th or 15th in the conference. All of Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers, and (somehow) Penn State are still in the running for the 15th seed and the Boilermakers can technically still finish 14th in the Big Ten.
Who the Badgers might play in the first round of the tournament is still anyone’s guess. The potential teams that could finish 10th or 11th includes: Michigan State, Michigan (only 10th), Oregon (only 10th), Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Washington. That is, uh, a wide range of opponents all of whom (except Michigan hahahahaha) have beaten Wisconsin already this season.
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Picking up this win, after a week off when rust could’ve set in, against a desperate Northwestern team is a nice feather in the cap of this year’s Badgers squad. Game against UCLA and Iowa are up next and no one outside of the UW locker room expects them to be competitive, so hopefully they can play loose and, at minimum, put a little scare into the Bruins and Hawkeyes.
I will discuss other postseason possibilities for Wisconsin (currently projected to be in the WNIT again) later in the week.
Next Game: Wednesday, Feb. 26; vs. No. 3 UCLA Bruins; 7:00 p.m. CT; Peacock; Kohl Center
