For the second time in a month, Purdue's senior guard Katie Gearlds proved to be too much for the Wisconsin women's basketball team to handle, as she led the Boilermakers with 26 points to knock the Badgers out of the Big Ten Conference tournament in Indianapolis in overtime 82-79 Saturday.
Gearlds, an All-Big Ten first team honoree this season, scored 41 points to help defeat Wisconsin on Feb. 18. She shot an impressive 8-for-18 from the field and 8-for-8 from the charity stripe Saturday. Purdue's freshman point guard FahKara Malone also posted strong numbers with 13 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and seven steals in the game.
Purdue was without all-conference selection Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton in overtime, as she fouled out in regulation with 14 points.
Wisconsin's standout junior guard, Jolene Anderson, led all scores with 27 points, but made a crucial mistake in the final seconds of overtime by driving in for a layup to pull the Badgers within one point rather than going for a tie. Gearlds was quickly fouled after the basket and made both of her free throws to put the Boilermakers up by three points with 1.2 seconds left on the clock. Also scoring in double digits for the No. 6 seed Wisconsin were classmates Janese Banks and Danielle Ward with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
Wisconsin shot 40.3 percent on the game, hitting 27-of-67 shots. The Badgers also went 7-of-9 from beyond the 3-point line and missed just one free throw on the game, hitting 18-of-19 from the charity stripe. Wisconsin also out-rebounded Purdue 41-35, and both teams committed 16 turnovers.
The Boilermakers shot 30-of-61 from the field, finishing just under 50 percent. Purdue also went 4-of-10 from 3-point land and 18-of-23 from the free throw line.
Due to the loss, the Badgers might not get a bid in the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA and WNIT tournament brackets will not be released until later today, as Wisconsin will wait to see if it has the opportunity to continue postseason play.
No. 2 seed Purdue defeated No. 3 Michigan State Sunday 64-61 to move on to the finals.
—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report.
