The Wisconsin women's basketball team (23-13) concluded its season with a devastating 72-56 loss in the Women's National Invitational Tournament championship game to Wyoming March 31. This was Wisconsin's second runner-up finish in its three total WNIT championship game appearances.
Junior guards Jolene Anderson and Janese Banks both were named members of the all-tournament team due to stellar performances throughout the tournament. Anderson also set a WNIT scoring record with 129 points scored in five games. The previous record was set by Jenny Lingor of Southern Missouri State in 2005 with 113 points.
In the championship game, Anderson led all scorers with 21 points and had her seventh double-double performance of the season with an additional 11 rebounds. She also found fire from beyond the 3-point arc, going 5-of-7 on the contest.
Two other Badgers finished in double figures as freshman Mariah Dunham contributed 13 points and Banks netted 12 points. Banks was one rebound off of a double-double herself.
Wyoming, having only one loss at home this season, took an early advantage over Wisconsin. The Cowgirls jumped on the Badgers and played with a lot of aggression from tip-off. Wisconsin's freshman point guard Rae Lin D'Alie fractured her hand within the first five minutes of the game and did not return. This loss tampered with the original plans the Badgers had as changes needed to be made to cover the loss of D'Alie.
At halftime, Wyoming was able to pull ahead of Wisconsin by a score of 39-26.
The Cowgirls shot an impressive 47.4 percent from the field on the game and found a 22 point cushion in the second half. The Badgers fought back and went on a 15-2 run with just under eight minutes left in the game to cut the Wyoming lead down to nine points. However, Wyoming found a spark shortly after Wisconsin's scoring spurt and went on its own 15-4 run, pushing its lead to 20 points at 52-72 with only 2:21 left in the game.
Wisconsin shot 32.3 percent from the field and went 7-of-15 from beyond the arc on the contest. The Badgers shot only 9-of-16 from the free throw line. Besides the Cowgirls grabbing just one more rebound on the game than the Badgers (40-39), Wyoming had 20 assists and only 10 turnovers compared to only seven assists and 14 miscues by Wisconsin.
Justyna Podziemska and Jodi Bolerjack of Wyoming (27-9) both scored a team high 16 points. Hanna Zavecz and Megan McGuffey contributed 12 points and 10 points respectively to the Cowgirls' score. With no seniors on the Badgers' roster, they should have a similar line-up next season.
The Badgers have recently signed Lin Zastrow from Jefferson High School to fight for a position next season. Zastrow, a 6'4' post player who has the ability to play all five positions, was voted the Associated Press' 2007 girls basketball Player of the Year by a statewide media panel and averaged 20.4 points and 11 rebounds per game for her team this season. Zastrow was also named Wisconsin's Miss Basketball by the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association.
Zastrow also is a former high school teammate of Wisconsin's sophomore forward Caitlin Gibson and has also played on an AAU team with Dunham in the past.
The Wisconsin squad this year closed out the season with a program-best 23 wins, 17 of which came on its home court at the Kohl Center, the most in school history. Until next season, the Badger players will continue to develop on both the personal and team levels to get geared up for another record breaking season.
—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report
