After losing on Saturday, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team is in the midst of a slow streak, having won only one of its last seven games.
“Everybody's looking for that win. Everybody needs it. We need it. So it will be a good game,” head coach Bobbie Kelsey said at a press conference Monday.
Coming off back-to-back conference losses to Indiana and Nebraska, the Badgers need to gain some momentum with only a month left before the Big Ten Tournament begins March 6.
“We have six more guaranteed games,” Kelsey said. “The ones on your schedule that you know you're going to play are five regular season and then you get the first game of the tournament. After that, those are extra, and you want some extra ones.”
The quest toward extending their season and getting those extra games begins Wednesday night at the Kohl Center as the Badgers (3-8 Big Ten, 10-13 overall) take on border rival Minnesota (4-6, 15-9) at 7 p.m.
The Golden Gophers got the best of Wisconsin in their previous meeting in comeback fashion, winning 64-53 after the Badgers led by six at the break.
Minnesota guard Rachel Banham lead all scorers in that game with 19 points and comes in leading the conference averaging 22.3 points per game.
Kelsey talked about how her team might slow down the junior guard.
“I think the challenge is you can't shut somebody like that down. She's going to get her points,” Kelsey said. “We've done a good job in the past of limiting her touches and trying to make it hard for her to score. Scorers are used to scoring, so we're trying to make her a passer and then shut that down.”
But the Badgers have an offensive force of their own, junior forward Michala Johnson, who has been on a tear lately scoring over 20 points in her last four contests.
Senior guard Taylor Wurtz has been a beast inside and out, adding three straight double-doubles to the Badger attack.
The surprise from last game came off the bench in freshman forward Malayna Johnson, who tied a career high with five points while adding a nice block in only nine minutes of game action.
“You know, Malayna did really well in this last game,” Kelsey said. “She's tall. We forget how long she is. When they have these post players that we need to take [Michala Johnson] off of, her sister, we put her on them because they have problems shooting over Malayna.”
This is a big week in the Wisconsin/Minnesota sports rivalry with six games being played between the two schools. Kelsey knows her team must do their part.
“Of course, our men's hockey [team] beat the Minnesota hockey team and then the women have them [Friday],” she said. “I don't know if this is a Minnesota week, but we've got to do our part for sure. So we're excited to play them. We'll see what happens.”
