In just her fourth year at the helm with a squad that does not feature a single senior, UW women's basketball coach Lisa Stone is just one win away from snagging her first postseason championship. In front of a crowd of just under 5,000, the Badgers beat Western Kentucky 79-72 in a Final Four match of the Women's National Invitational Tournament to advance to the championship game on Saturday against Wyoming.
""I can't say enough about the courageous effort by our team,"" Stone said. ""[We're] a little banged up and we're going to go on the road, and it's just a great accomplishment for our team. But we're this far, and we want to finish the deal.""
Compared to Sunday's game against Virginia, where the Cavaliers had the upper hand for most of the game, neither the Badgers nor the Lady Toppers took any sort of commanding lead during the match. The seven-point margin for the win was tied for the largest lead on the scoreboard all night by either team.
Though the Badgers came out with a victory, it was not because they shut down Western Kentucky's standout guard Crystal Kelly. Kelly, who is the second leading scorer in the NCAA with 23.9 points per game, managed to put up 28 points on the Badgers and reeled in six rebounds. Despite the solid defensive play of UW junior forward Danielle Ward, Kelly managed to penetrate down low and come up with points on 10 different trips to the basket.
""Crystal Kelly is the real deal,"" Stone said. ""The girl is a great player ... they run their offense to get her the basketball, and they get it to her and she gets to the foul line.""
But Wisconsin made up for Kelly's domination underneath by winning the battle of the backcourt. Western Kentucky guard Brianne Brown got into foul trouble early, which allowed UW junior guards Jolene Anderson and Janese Banks to open up their game. Brown later fouled out with over six minutes left in the second half and allowed the Wisconsin guards to finish the game strong.
""We had some goals on Anderson and Banks that we were trying to limit them to,"" Western Kentucky head coach Mary Taylor Cowles said. ""Obviously, we did not reach those goals.""
Anderson scored 26 points on the night to boost her WNIT scoring average to 27 points per game. With 108 points in the past four games, Anderson now needs just nine more points to set a record for the most points scored by a single player in the WNIT tournament.
Banks put up 23 points of her own, including eight from the free throw line, but the athleticism that she demonstrated in scoring some of those points was even more impressive than her statistics. On one particular baseline run midway through the first half, Banks was caught underneath a good Topper defense, but still put up a blind, two-handed shot that somehow fell in and interrupted an early Lady Topper run.
""Janese is one of those special players,"" Cowles said. ""We actually had Janese on campus on an unofficial visit when she was in high school, and we were not ignoring what Janese Banks can provide for this basketball team, by no means. Her athleticism is just phenomenal and her energy and her drive is very, very high, and I knew she had the capabilities of putting up numbers for them.""
In addition, Wisconsin took care of business from the free throw line. The team made all 20 of their attempted free throws, which helped them to maintain its marginal lead down the set and set a Kohl Center record in the process.
""Free throws were huge for us once again,"" Stone said. ""Kohl Center record 20-of-20 at the free -throw line. [We] got the ball in the right hands at the end of the game.""
With only one game left to go before the end of the season, the Badgers could not have picked a better time to peak. But if you ask any of the players on the team, their recent success is no surprise. Their long run into the post season is a direct result of a strong desire to win and great chemistry on and off the court.
""It's a blessing from God just to be on this team right now,"" Banks said after the game. ""I remember after the championship game in the NCAA last year, Laura Harper [of the national champion Maryland team] said she loves her teammates and that's the reason they made their run. That's how I feel about mine. I love my teammates and I feel like that's how we're making this run right now. It's just fun.""
