Sophomore guard Jolene Anderson made Badger history Thursday afternoon during the opening round of the Big Ten conference tournament, becoming the fastest player in Wisconsin basketball history to reach the 1,000 point mark in her career.
But her stellar performance and a late push were not enough to advance the Badger women's basketball team (5-11 Big Ten, 11-18 overall) into the quarterfinal round, as Wisconsin suffered a 80-73 loss to Penn State (6-10, 13-15) at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Anderson made nine shots from the field and two more from the line to score 24 points??, totaling exactly 1,000 career points in only her 57th game as a Badger.
Senior forward Jordan Wilson also put up big numbers, scoring 15 points and snagging three rebounds in Wisconsin's final game of the season.
Penn State's junior guard Kamela Gissendanner led the Lady Lions with 18 points.
Wisconsin seemed to have a slight advantage heading into the game with momentum from the final weeks of the regular season, including a brilliant 66-56 victory over the Lady Lions just over two weeks ago.
Coming out of halftime down 27-36, the Badgers started with an offensive rally that seemed to revive the team as they took their first lead of the second half, 39-38 with 16:55 left.
Penn State immediately responded and jumped back out in front, 44-39, with less than 16 minutes to play.
With little more than two minutes remaining and Wisconsin trailing by just two points at 66-64, Penn State managed to put up eight points from the paint and hit seven of nine from the free- throw line to lock up the win.
Wisconsin had a season-low eight turnovers, but Penn State clearly shot better throughout the game, hitting 49.1 percent from the field and getting four starters to reach double-digit point totals. Junior forward Charity Renfro, the only starter not to score more than a dozen points, reeled in 13 boards. Sophomore guard Janese Banks managed to chalk up 10 points for the Badgers, but fouled out late in the game.
