Age and experience reigned over the youth of this year's women's basketball squad, as several of last year's players returned to the Kohl Center Sunday as members of the Wisconsin AAU Select team for an exhibition game where the Wisconsin AAU Select team defeated UW 85-72.
AAU dominated early and never looked back, providing a big challenge defensively for a young and inexperienced Badger team that returned only two starters. The team, consisting of an all-star Wisconsin roster, shot 48.3 percent and had 16 points off of 24 Wisconsin turnovers.
\I was mostly disappointed in our defensive effort in the first half because I didn't think that they ran a lot of plays to get those people those shots,"" Head Coach Jane Albright, in her eighth year of coaching at UW, said.
""Our turnovers, obviously is something we can't live with,"" she said.
While some holes in the defense were exposed, on offense several players took the lead for the team in the second half where Wisconsin outscored the Viking Club, 42-37. However, it wasn't enough to make up for a first half where the Badgers shot 34.5 percent and were outscored by 18 points.
Junior center Emily Ashbaugh , who was the leading scorer last season, had 17 points including 11 points at the foul line.
""I think that I rushed a lot down low,"" she said. ""It's frustrating, but with as many young players [as] we've got on the court and as many different things as we've got playing around you don't have time to get down on yourself or lose your focus. You've got to keep your head up and go.""
Junior center Lello Gebisa showed great promise in her first game with the Badgers this season after transferring from Duke, where she played as a reserve, averaging one point and one rebound in her 33 games.
""I'm pretty disappointed,"" she said. ""Apparently, I had five turnovers and that's pretty bad. I think this game highlighted what I need to work on.""
While Albright agreed there are aspects that need to be worked on, she said she thought Gebisa was being too critical of her own play, which included 16 points and eight rebounds.
""I think Lello's being a little modest,"" Albright said. ""I think this is her career high. She can say what she wants about improving and I know she will, but she had some very great plays.""
While statistics showed many areas on which the Badgers need to work, Albright said she was encouraged by the play of the team and feels the group is on track to being the team they want to be after losing six players last year.
""We did a lot of really good things,"" she said. ""They're playing with really good awareness, things that you don't write about in the paper, but I saw a lot of good basketball savvy.
""When you talk about a team that lost so much experience we've got a lot of players that I saw do some things to make other people better.""
