Arizona State shot 65.5 percent after halftime to rally from a nine-point deficit to defeat the UW women's basketball team 73-70 Saturday night to advance to the second round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament in Nashville, Tenn.
The Badgers finished the 2001-'02 season at 19-12, while three seniors who rank near or at the top of most UW all-time records ended their careers.
\I was really pleased with everything except that Arizona State shot the lights out in the second half,"" UW Head Coach Jane Albright said. ""I wish we could have gotten one more stop.""
After some initial cold shooting by both squads, Wisconsin put together two 6-0 runs to take a 12-point lead at 30-18 midway through the first half. Playing an excellent high-low game with senior guard Tamara Moore and senior forward Jessie Stomski,
the Badgers built their largest lead of the game, 34-20, with 1:31 to play in the opening frame.
Despite shooting an anemic 30.3 percent in the first half, the Sun Devils only trailed by nine, 34-25 at halftime. UW looked solid as it held ASU senior guard Amanda Levens, the Sun Devils' leading scorer through the regular season, to just one first-half point.
""Defensively we played a pretty good game, we shot the ball well, we didn't turn it over, we out rebounded them,"" Albright said. ""It was a game that was hard to score in the first half for both teams.""
UW traded buckets with the Sun Devils for the first 15 minutes of the second half, still maintaining a 63-55 advantage with 6:25 to play. However, back-to-back three-point buckets from Levens and senior forward Cian Carvalho started an ASU 10-2 run to tie the game at 65.
With 3:16 to play, Johnson gave the Sun Devils their first lead of the game since 2-0 at 67-65 and their largest lead of the game at 69-65. At 1:30, UW senior guard Kyle Black picked the perfect time for her first three of the game to pull the Badgers within one. Stomski gave UW the lead at 70-69 with 47.4 seconds to play, but Carvalho, who finished the game with a career high 24 points, iced the game with four free throws down the stretch.
Moore finished her career at UW as the all-time steals (353) and assists (554) leader and tied former Badger forward LaTonya Sims with 124 consecutive games played. Black finished second in all three-point categories (191 of 523 for 36.5 percent). Stomski, who tallied 19 points and 10 rebounds in her final game, tied Theresa Huff with 37 career double-doubles and Sims with 105 double-figure-scoring games. Stomski finished second in all-time scoring and rebounding with 1915 and 961, respectively.
