The Wisconsin women's basketball team dropped to 7-7 in the Big Ten after losing 83-57 to No. 4 Ohio State at Value City Arena Thursday evening. The Buckeyes continued their undefeated run both at home and in the Big Ten, improving their conference record to 13-0.
""The score was not indicative [of the way we played] in my mind,"" UW head coach Lisa Stone said. ""We really battled and kept playing hard. That's a good team and there is a reason they won 30 straight Big Ten games.""
Junior guard Jolene Anderson led Wisconsin with 19 points. Also scoring in double digits was classmate Janese Banks who had 14 points, and freshman Rae Lin D'Alie added nine points and dished out five assists.
Ohio State's two-time player of the year, senior center Jessica Davenport, also scored 19 points and had a game-high eight rebounds. Three other Buckeyes scored in double figures. Ashlee Trebilcock and Marscilla Packer each contributed 15 points, and Star Allen netted 14 points.
""They are terrific,"" Stone said. ""They found Davenport, and she got doubled and tripled, we played man, we played zone. We just didn't have any answers. But it wasn't so much her; it was everybody else. They struck it rich at the 3-point line.""
Despite an early first half lead, the Badgers were not able to hold the Buckeyes down for long, as Ohio State was able to pull ahead and create a comfortable 11-point cushion going into the locker room with a 34-23 lead.
Turnovers were a major problem for the Badgers, as they committed 20 in the game. Ohio State shot 53.1 percent from the field and an impressive 63.6 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. Wisconsin, however, shot only 36.2 percent from the field and 38.5 from 3-point land.
Danielle Ward and Caitlin Gibson, two dominant post players for Wisconsin, both fouled out. Ohio State capitalized on 24 points out of a possible 32 from the free-throw line. Wisconsin only went 10-of-15 from the charity stripe on the night.
Wisconsin will be hosting No. 16 Purdue Sunday afternoon at the Kohl Center. Anderson needs just one more point to reach 1,500 career points. Sunday's contest will be her 85th career game.
—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report.
