After opening the Big Ten season with a win earlier in the week, the Badgers (1-1 Big Ten, 5-7 overall) struggled in the first half of Sunday’s game en route to losing their first conference game of the season to the Michigan State Spartans (1-1, 10-3) 77-67.
After trailing by a mere five points after the first quarter in East Lansing, Mich., the Badgers scored only nine points in the second period and went into the break down 14 points, a deficit that was too great for UW to overcome.
Not only did the Badgers miss senior guard Tessa Cichy, who sat out her second consecutive game due to an illness, but also played almost the entire first half without Dakota Whyte due to foul trouble.
Whyte picked up her second foul of the game with 7:43 to go in the first quarter and spent the rest of the half on the bench. As a result, the Badgers leaned heavily on redshirt freshman guard Roichelle Marble.
Initially, Marble provided the Badgers offense with energy and a clear spark off the bench, but, as the half progressed, Marble seemed to fatigue and the offense slowed down.
With 1:50 remaining in the half, Marble had her pocket picked by a Spartan defender, who took the ball to the rim before dishing it to teammate Tori Jankoska, who was fouled by Marble on her layup attempt.
The old-fashioned three by Jankoska extended the Spartan lead to 12 and was a crucial mistake in arguably the most important stretch of the game. A missed layup by junior Avyanna Young one possession later eventually led to three of Aerial Powers’ 22 points and a 15-point halftime Spartan lead.
The Badgers later cut the lead to seven points on a Dakota Whyte jumper, the final two of her 14 second-half points, but the Badger defense struggled stopping the Spartans down the stretch and were unable to mount a run that would have given them at least a share of the lead.
One game after tying her season high with 24 points, senior guard Nicole Bauman struggled on the offensive end and finished the game with only six points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field.
With Bauman struggling to find her shot, Cichy’s absence was augmented.
While Cichy does not put up the offensive numbers that Bauman does, Cichy frequently sets screens or assists on Badgers’ baskets.
“She’s gonna get a charge somewhere. She’s gonna make a pass somewhere,” head coach Bobbie Kelsey said after a practice in mid-December. “In a lot of ways she just gets the job done.”
Without Cichy to set screens or keep the ball moving, the Badgers’ offense looked stagnant for large chunks of the game. The offensive stagnancy frequently culminated in forced hook shots from senior Michala Johnson or Young.
Like Whyte, Johnson dealt with foul trouble and played only 20 minutes on the afternoon, finishing with eight points and four rebounds. Young played 31 minutes and finished with 10 points and six rebounds, but had six turnovers and missed five of her nine shots.
The Badgers hope to get Cichy back and rebound from their first Big Ten defeat of the season when they travel to Piscataway, N.J., to face the Rutgers Scarlet Knights Thursday evening.
