Led by 17 points and 14 rebounds from junior guard Taylor Wurtz, the Wisconsin women's basketball team (1-1) started the regular season on the right foot with a 68-51 road victory over the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers (0-1) on Friday night. Wisconsin's home debut on Sunday against an experienced Oral Roberts (2-0) team went less smoothly, as the Golden Eagles defeated the Badgers 80-63 at the Kohl Center.
Friday's victory over the Panthers stretched the Badgers' all-time record against Milwaukee to 21-1. In the first ever matchup between Wisconsin and Oral Roberts, the Golden Eagles overwhelmed the Badgers with an occasional full court press and a swarming zone defense. Wisconsin ended up committing 31 turnovers in the game, the most the Badgers have ever committed in one game at the Kohl Center.
"This is embarrassing," Wisconsin head coach Bobbie Kelsey said. "These players are very capable of taking care of the ball. We have to watch it, see where the errors are, and try to correct it."
Oral Roberts returned all five starters from last season, so their experience likely gave them the advantage over a Wisconsin team who lost its three top scorers from last season to graduation and is still in the process of absorbing the system Kelsey has installed.
"We got [the Badgers] at the right time," ORU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner said. "If we played them a month and a half from now, it would be a tight game and we might lose at the buzzer."
The main thorn in Wisconsin's side on Sunday was ORU junior guard Kevi Luper. Luper led all scorers with 34 points on 14-for-23 shooting. She also picked up five of ORU's 23 steals. As a whole, the Golden Eagles shot 49 percent from the field, compared to only 36 percent for the Badgers.
For the second straight game, Wisconsin did a better job on the offensive glass then its opponent, finishing with 19 offensive rebounds. On the season, the Badgers have a total of 34 offensive rebounds, compared to only 11 for their opponents.
"Crashing the offensive boards is something that we do everyday," Wurtz, who led the Badgers with five offensive rebounds and 15 total rebounds, said. "I think my teammates did a really good job of boxing it out and making it easy for me to go grab the ball."
The Badgers will need to take better care of the ball and have better shooting performances before they can secure their first home victory of the season.
"Turnovers and free throws, that's the game right there," senior guard Jade Davis said. "We could have played much better. This game doesn't show anyone how good we can be."
Wisconsin's taxing early schedule continues to roll on. On Tuesday, the Badgers will play a road game in Milwaukee for the second time in five days. This time around, they will face rival Marquette, who beat the Badgers 66-52 in Madison last season.
