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The Daily Cardinal Est. 1892
Friday, March 29, 2024
Taylor Wurtz

Junior guard Taylor Wurtz was key in Wisconsin's win over St. Louis last season.

Women's Basketball: Wisconsin looks to make it two in a row

The Wisconsin Badgers women's basketball team looks to win back-to-back games for the first time this season as they host the Saint Louis Billikens in a Monday night tilt at the Kohl Center. This will be the second matchup of a two-game homestand for Wisconsin (3-5 overall), who defeated Boston College 58-50 in the Big Ten/ACC Women's Challenge on Wednesday.

Saint Louis (2-5 overall) makes the return trip to Madison after hosting the Badgers in their home arena last season. In what was the first meeting between the two schools, Wisconsin held Saint Louis to 20.8 percent shooting en route to a 60-32 victory. Then sophomore guard Taylor Wurtz had eight points and eight rebounds in the win.

Both teams have found success on the boards this season, easily outrebounding their opponents in early non-conference play. The Billikens are plus-8.6 in rebounding margin and the Badgers are at plus-4. Now a junior, Wurtz leads Wisconsin with 9.3 rebounds per game, while St. Louis forward Lorreal Jones is the leading rebounder for the Billikens at 10.4 rebounds per game.

Junior guard Courtney Webb leads St. Louis with a 12.9 points per game, despite only starting three of seven games this season. Billikens head coach Shimmy Gray-Miller has not been afraid to shake up her starting lineup so far this year, starting a total of nine different players on the season. Gray-Miller has Big Ten roots, as she played for Michigan in the early 1990s.

Wisconsin will look to build on to the solid offensive performance they had against Boston College. In that game, the Badgers shot 43.8 percent from the field, well above their season average of 38.7 percent. As usual, Wurtz was a major scoring contributor with 19 points, but it was also a breakout game for freshman guard Lacia Gorman, who made a trio of important three-pointers in the game. Wisconsin head coach Bobbie Kelsey is searching for someone to be the reliable second scorer behind Wurtz, and Gorman is one of the contenders to take that role.

Limiting turnovers will be key if the Badgers want to take home their second straight victory. Wisconsin is committing an average of 19.1 turnovers per game this season, often struggling with taking care of the ball when faced with a full-court press. Taking care of the basketball consistently would greatly help Wisconsin on the nights when the ball isn't going through the hoop.

Following Monday's game, the Badgers will head out west to take on the Kansas Jayhawks on Thursday. Wisconsin and Kansas played a thriller of a game at the Kohl Center last season, in which the Jayhawks escaped Madison with a 93-86 overtime victory.

Tip-off for tonight's game is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Kohl Center.

 

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