UW WBB: Purdue runs past Wisconsin in second half, Badgers fall 66-49

http://www.uwbadgers.com/sport_news/wbb/headlines/story.html?sportid=135&storyid=16755 The Wisconsin women's basketball team trailed by just six points at halftime but Purdue's strong second half catapulted the Boilermakers to a 66-49 win at Mackey Arena Sunday afternoon. Wisconsin has now lost five-straight games and drops to 14-10 overall, 4-9 in the Big Ten Conference while Purdue improves to 16-8, 9-4. Purdue led by as many as 25 points in the second half and out-scored the Badgers 20-5 within the first 9:30 of the half. "We just came out of the locker room and couldn't put the ball in the basket for quite some time," UW head coach Lisa Stone said. "That's something where our spacing needs to improve a little bit. They really got some rhythm. The ball went into the post and they were able to pass out of our double team, skip that baseline runner to both Jodi Howell and Brittany Rayburn for open 3's. We gave up way too many points in a short amount of time to start the second half and we just couldn't get anything going." UW sophomore Alyssa Karel led the Badgers with 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting. She also made two of Wisconsin's four 3-point field goals. Freshman Anya Covington saw increased time in the post and grabbed double-digit rebounds for the third time this season as she finished with 10. She also went 2-of-4 from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line for eight points. As a team, Wisconsin shot just 19-of-61 for 31.1 percent. Purdue finished 23-of-60 for 38.3 percent but made 7-of-17 attempts from 3-point range. Howell led the Boilermakers with 15 points off a perfect 5-of-5 from 3-point range. Rayburn and Lakisha Freeman added 13 and 12 points, respectively. Purdue won the battle on the boards, out-rebounding Wisconsin 44-38. The Boilermakers had nine offensive rebounds in the first half and finished with 12. Purdue had the 14-8 advantage on second chance points. The Badgers finished with 16 turnovers, leading to 21 points for Purdue while the Boilermakers turned it over 14 times for nine Badger points. "We played until the end," Stone said. "This is a team that you don't have to coach effort. They bring it and I'm proud of them for that. We showed some strength and some will. We talk about breaking things down media (timeout) by media (timeout). In the first half, after the first two, we were leading in my opinion. Then we had I believe it was a four and a half minute drought. We had some good looks at the basket, only nine turnovers in the first half which is not too bad, but we were strapped by a little bit of foul trouble in the post." Wisconsin jumped out to a 6-0 lead with Karel scoring back-to-back jumpers. After a Purdue timeout, the Boilermakers responded, going on a 7-0 run to take the 7-6 lead with 16:39 remaining in the first half. Both teams stayed close until Wisconsin hit a scoring drought for more than four minutes and Purdue jumped out to a 17-11 lead with 9:04 showing. Karel finally broke the drought with another jumper. At that point, Karel had nine of Wisconsin's 13 points. Two free throws by Covington put the Badgers within two points (17-15) but Purdue went on another run, outscoring the Badgers 9-0 to take its largest lead of the game at that point at 11 (26-15) with 3:56 left. Karel broke the drought again and the Badgers seemed to have some momentum on their side as Rae Lin D'Alie connected on a jumper on UW's next possession but Purdue went up by nine (28-19) with 1:48 remaining in the first. Two Covington free throws put the Badgers within four (28-24) but Natasha Bogdanova hit a jumper to put the score at 30-24 heading into halftime. Wisconsin struggled offensively in the first half, hitting just 9-of-28 shots for 32.1 percent and turned the ball over nine times. Purdue dominated on the offensive glass with nine offensive rebounds compared to five for Wisconsin. Purdue also struggled offensively in the first half, going 10-of-32 for 31.3 percent. The Boilermakers started the second half strong, scoring six-straight to jump ahead 36-24. Sophomore Tara Steinbauer drew an old-fashioned three-point play to break the Boilermaker run but the Badgers couldn't stop Purdue. Howell made two 3-pointers as the Boilermakers went on a 10-0 run to take the 21-point lead (50-29) with 11:24 left. The Badgers struggled to erase the deficit and couldn't get closer than 16 points the rest of the way. Wisconsin stayed tough until the end though, scoring six points in the final minute. "They were better than we were today, that's just the way it is," Stone said. "They scored, we didn't get out and contest. There are some things we can address both defensively and offensively and we're getting stronger. We played with a lot more will than we did a week ago and this is one that we'll go back and clip because there are some teaching points defensively. Offensively, we need a little bit better spacing and the ability to attack that zone that they had. We got some good looks in the post but just couldn't capitalize." Wisconsin returns home to the Kohl Center Thursday for a 7 p.m. game against Penn State. Be sure to log onto UWBadgers.com throughout the week for previews leading up to Thursday's game.