Badgers can't hang on in 49-46 loss to NU

EVANSTON, Ill. http://www.uwbadgers.com/sport_news/wbb/headlines/story.html?sportid=135&storyid=16307 Wisconsin had a five point lead with 12:47 left Sunday night but cold shooting and five turnovers down the stretch gave Northwestern the 49-46 win in Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Badgers scored just four field goals from the 12:47 mark on to relinquish the lead and drop to 2-2 in the Big Ten Conference and to 12-3 overall. Northwestern gets its first conference win of the season and improves to 1-3 in the Big Ten, 5-10 overall. Wisconsin finished with 16 turnovers on the night which led to 17 points for Northwestern. Ten of those turnovers came in the first half. "We didn't get into a rhythm at all," UW head coach Lisa Stone said. "We had 10 first half turnovers and they were running man-to-man on top and zone down low. Anything we wanted inside was gone and they had a game plan to make Alyssa (Karel) work. She had 19 but she had to work for everything that she got. We just couldn't get into a flow. That's a great job by them, they had fouls to give and we had no timeouts left at the end but we were flat. We came out flat today and let the ball in too early. We were a step slow today and that's got to improve and we've got to get back on track. I give Northwestern a ton of credit, they played very very well today." Alyssa Karel had a game-high 19 points. She converted on 8-of-14 field goal attempts and was 3-of-6 from 3-point range for her 14th game scoring in double figures. Karel was the only Badger in double figures but sophomores Tara Steinbauer and Lin Zastrow added eight and seven points, respectively. Wisconsin, who shot 55 percent in the first half, finished 18-of-47 for 38.3 percent from the field. The Wildcats were led by 12 points from Amy Jaeschke and Maggie Mocchi added 10 points. NU finished at 40 percent and went 20-of-50 from the field. Wisconsin won the battle on the boards by edging NU, 35-30. Steinbauer tied a season-high with seven boards while Mariah Dunham also grabbed seven rebounds. Wisconsin scored 10 unanswered points early to go up 12-4 with 15:02 left in the first half. Zastrow hit a 3-pointer from the corner, Karel connected on a jumper and Rae Lin D'Alie scored five points, which included a three-point play off a turnover by Northwestern, during the run. Jaeschke broke the run with a lay-up and helped the Wildcats go on a 9-2 run to take the lead at 15-14 with 10:11 left in the half. Erin Dickerson drained a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats their first lead since going up 4-2. Wisconsin turned the ball over five times in that stretch. There were four lead changes until Northwestern scored six-straight to take its biggest lead of the game at six points (26-20) with 5:15 left in the half. That was the last time the Wildcats scored as they missed their final four shot attempts of the half. Wisconsin took advantage of this by going on a 9-0 run to end the half. The Badgers bounced back by scoring four points off back-to-back NU turnovers to put the score at 26-25 with 3:33 showing. Wisconsin re-gained the lead (27-26) after Karel hit jumper near the free throw line and another Karel jumper finished off a 9-0 run for the Badgers as they took the 29-26 lead into halftime. Both teams were hot in the first half as Wisconsin went 11-of-20 for 55 percent in the first half while NU shot 12-of-25 for 48 percent. The Badgers turned the ball over 10 times though which led to 11 NU points while the Wildcats gave the ball up seven times for eight UW points. Wisconsin's lead dwindled in the second half as Mocchi hit a three and Jaeschke made a bucket in the lane to tie the score at 37 with 10:01 remaining. Neither team scored for more than three minutes but a jumper by Jenny Eckhart with 7:04 left in the game gave the Wildcats the lead back at 39-37. "We had some opportunities," Stone said of the scoring drought in the second half. "The score yet it wasn't a game where we got to the free throw line. We had just 10 free throws and it was a pretty even game. It was a game where both teams really pushed everybody out of the paint, forced you to take some bad shots. Although there were only 16 turnovers, it seemed like there were more because our shots were rushed and we didn't capitalize." After Karel's 3-pointer Wisconsin was scoreless for more than six minutes until Teah Gant converted on a lay-up to tie the score for the sixth time. NU went back up six points (43-39) but Karel cut the lead in half with yet another 3-pointer to put the score at 45-42 with 3:48 left in the game. At that point, Wisconsin had 13 points in the half, nine of which were off 3's from Karel. Zastrow cut the lead to one (45-44) with a jumper but NU got back out to a three-point lead after a bucket by Jaeschke. Zastrow committed her fifth foul as she fouled Jaeschke going up for the shot. Down by three with 25 seconds remaining, Wisconsin had a chance to tie after Jaeschke missed a 3-pointer as the shotclock expired. Karel missed a 3-pointer and D'Alie grabbed the rebound as Wisconsin called a timeout to reset. The Badgers had 6.4 seconds out of the timeout to connect on a 3 but NU, who had fouls to give, fouled Wisconsin twice to take time off the clock. Dunham gave the Badgers a chance with her 3-point attempt but the shot went long for the 49-46 NU win. "We've got to get back to work," Stone said. "It doesn't get any easier and this is certainly a big win for Northwestern because they've been in every game. Their record is deceiving and that's a good team with a really really good player inside. I give Northwestern a ton of credit, they played well and they had the quicker step today than we did." Wisconsin returns to the Kohl Center Thursday night when No. 17 Ohio State comes to town. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m. and it will air live on the Big Ten Network.