Senior guard Alyssa Karel has carried the Wisconsin women's basketball team on her back for the better part of the past two seasons. With just over three minutes remaining in Sunday's WNIT second round match against Illinois State and UW down by nine, Karel again took it upon herself to lead her Badger squad.
With eight points in those final minutes, Karel brought Wisconsin to within two of ISU with just 11 seconds to play. An Illinois State turnover gave the Badgers a chance to tie or take the lead, but freshman Morgan Paige converted just one free throw when fouled on Wisconsin's next shot.
Forced to foul, the Badgers sent ISU to the line where the Red Birds sunk both free throws. Karel again took the ball as the seconds ticked away, but her shot as the buzzer sounded—her final shot as a Badger—fell just short, bouncing off the front of the rim.
The 62-59 loss ended Wisconsin's season with a 16-15 record.
Karel led the Badgers with 24 points Sunday—her eighth 20-point performance of the season. Her 1,476 career points vaulted the St. Paul, Minn. native to 12th all time in program history.
Fellow senior Lin Zastrow contributed 18 points for the Badgers.
Wisconsin and ISU played tight basketball for the first 20 minutes of the contest. Neither team led by more than three points in the first half, with the lead changing seven times. The Red Birds went into halftime up by just one.
Poor play in the second half, however, doomed the Badgers to a hole too deep to climb out of. Wisconsin shot just 39.3 percent in the contest. More importantly, however, the Badgers managed just 11-of-19 shooting from the free throw line, while ISU sunk 20-of-23.
Junior guard Katie Broadway led the Red Birds with 18 points, including three 3-pointers.
Wisconsin now heads into an off season where they begin rebuilding a 2011-'12 squad with plenty of holes to fill.
-UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
