Senior guard Jolene Anderson was awarded the Big Ten Player of the Week after scoring 23 points at Indiana Thursday and 30 points at Penn State Sunday. This week's honor was Anderson's fourth career Big Ten POW award and her second of the season.
In the victory over the Nittany Lions, Anderson led the Badgers with 14 rebounds, tying a career high.
Jolene Anderson threw the team on her back, and that was a big difference-maker right there,"" head coach Lisa Stone said in her weekly press conference. ""I mean ... she played all 40 minutes, has 18 at the half, rebounding like crazy.
""You know, we went in there with great belief, great confidence, and we made some history, in a large part due to a great performance out of Jolene,"" Stone added.
Wisconsin, which previously had not defeated a Penn State team at Happy Valley in 14 tries, indeed made history - one more thing Anderson can add to her already lengthy resume.
She currently leads the Big Ten in scoring this season and also in minutes played per game.
""She's in the best condition she's ever been in,"" Stone said. ""I watch her during the course of the game, and I'm talking to her a lot. 'Are you okay, Jo?' She goes, 'Yeah, I'm fine.' She knows there's a media [timeout] coming. She can't rest on defense. Because of that, you watch her shots. If she's on a roll, let her go. It's just the way it is. You just got to let her go.""
Anderson now needs just 73 points to become the most prolific scorer in Wisconsin basketball history - male or female. Alando Tucker set the record last season with 2,217 points.
""Jolene, knowing what her capabilities are, she's going to draw a lot of attention,"" Stone said, ""but she makes other people better.""
Though Anderson has been scoring well all season, the rest of her teammates have recently intensified their game, finally living up to the preseason expectations.
""What's happening with our team right now is they understand that if Jolene is covered - double-teamed, triple-teamed - we're participating more than spectating,"" Stone said. ""Early on, there was more spectating ... and everybody else was watching. I think now we've got a lot more participation in scoring.""
Anderson and the Badgers will need to do a lot of scoring, as they welcome conference leading No. 19 Ohio State to the Kohl Center Sunday afternoon.
""We're playing a quality team, a quality opponent, but we have some confidence right now,"" Stone said. ""Knowing that we went there, did what we did, brings, again, some positive energy coming into this week.
