Heart and confidence are two ingredients essential to victories during March Madness. The Wisconsin women's basketball team (22-12) displayed both of these qualities as it fought back from a 14-point deficit in the second half to triumph over Virginia (19-15) in the quarterfinals of the Women's National Invitational Tournament at the Kohl Center Sunday afternoon 84-78. The impressive record marks a program-high for wins in a season by the Badgers.
Junior sensation Jolene Anderson led Wisconsin with a game-high 30 points, tying her career best for points scored in a contest. Also reaching double-figure scoring was classmate Janese Banks with 19 points. Beyond scoring, Anderson and Banks got their teammates pumped up and gave the crowd something to cheer about as they made big plays on both ends of the court.
Despite a rough start by the Badgers, they trailed by only six points at half. The first few minutes of the second half did not help as Virginia surged to a 14-point lead with just under 15 minutes left in the game. Anderson, who had only eight points in the first half, found fire for the remainder of the game, scoring 22 points. Banks also put 13 points on the scoreboard in the second half.
With 3:19 left on the clock, emotions within the arena went haywire. Banks picked up a charge as the Badgers trailed by only two points, bringing the crowd to its feet. An assistant coach for Virginia, upset by the call, made a remark to the referee resulting in a technical foul. Anderson was sent to the free-throw line with hopes of evening the score, and she did just that by sinking both shots.
""[Anderson] is a great athlete and that's what athletes do, they make plays,"" Banks said.
On the next possession freshman point guard Rae Lin D'Alie found an opening in the lane and drove to the hole, making a layup near the baseline. This gave the Badgers their first lead of the game with approximately three minutes left on the clock.
During the next possession ,Anderson got a rebound off of a missed 3-point attempt by Virginia's senior guard Brenna McGuire. The Cavaliers applied heavy defensive pressure on the Badgers and caused D'Alie to almost turn the ball over with four seconds left on the shot clock. Anderson scooped up the loose ball, squared up and drained a 3-pointer just before the buzzer sounded, giving Wisconsin a 75-70 lead with 2:15 left in the game. This gave the Badgers momentum to finish off the game strong.
Wisconsin kept the lead from this point on even though Virginia hoped they would falter under pressure from the charity line. All of the Badgers' free throws came in the second half of action, as they went 22-of-29 from the charity line.
""Everybody believed we were going to win this game,"" said Wisconsin head coach Lisa Stone about her team. ""Even when we were trailing, nobody gave up. And that's the key thing with this team. They're fighters, they want to win and we are now one step closer to just a tremendous accomplishment.""
Virginia had three players reach double-digit scoring with senior center Siedah Williams leading her team with 25 points. Sophomore Lyndra Littles and junior Sharnee Zoll contributed 24 and 13 points, respectively.
Wisconsin will host Western Kentucky Wednesday evening at the Kohl Center in the semifinals. The winner will advance to the WNIT championship game which will be played on Saturday.
