Wisconsin Badgers News: New time for rescheduled game, Lady Badgers fall, more
By Joey Lovell
Good Monday morning Badgers fans! Enjoy your cup of Joey as you get caught up on your Wisconsin Badgers news!
Only one full calendar month remains until we descend into the mayhem that is March Madness. A different kind of madness has partially afflicted the men’s team, as they have had their already re-scheduled game against Northwestern pushed back 3 hours on Monday. Originally scheduled for Saturday, it was postponed by Big Ten officials until Monday at 2:30. Yesterday it was pushed back to 5:30 p.m. (CST). The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
Lady Badgers run out of gas at Penn State 74-69
The Wisconsin Lady Badgers dropped a tough game today, losing to the Lady Lions 74-69 in State College, PA. Julie Pospisilova and Avery LaBarbera led the way for the Badgers with 18 points apiece. Serah Williams chipped in for 12 points and Brooke Schramek added 11 points as well.
Pospislova, Wisconsin’s leading scorer on the season at 12.5 PPG, earned her first double-double of the season, hauling in 10 rebounds to go along with her 18 points. LaBarbera added 7 rebounds and led the Badgers with 6 assists. Sara Stapelton had the only bench points with 2.
Penn State’s Taniyah Thompson paced all scorers with 27 points in a very efficient 29 minutes off the bench. Makenna Marisa was the only other Lady Lion in double-digit scoring, with 15 points.
There were some positive aspects of the game for Wisconsin to build upon. The Lady Badgers had a higher field goal percentage (49.1 % to 44.8%), and more field goals actually made (27-26). In addition, they owned the glass, outrebounding Penn State 37-25. Lastly, Wisconsin was a perfect 6 for 6 on foul shots.
The area that grievously hurt Wisconsin was turnovers. The Lady Lions had 16 steals and the Lady Badgers had 25 overall turnovers to Penn State’s 14.
In what seemed like a little bit of “home cooking”, Penn State got the foul line three times as many times as Wisconsin, shooting 18 foul shots to 6. When a team makes double the number of free throws that the other team makes, that’s a tough obstacle to overcome.
Our ladies return home to the cozy confines of the Kohl Center for a Wednesday non-conference matchup against Valparaiso. Tipoff is for 6:30 p.m. (CST).
Grapplers give Iowa all they can handle
Fresh off of their Friday night 28-9 victory against Purden, Wisconsin’s men resumed their gauntlet of a schedule Sunday when #2 Iowa invaded the UW Fieldhouse. The record number of 5,256 definitely got its money’s worth, if not the result they hoped for.
Down 15-3 after the first 5 matches, Wisconsin roared back to take an 18-15 lead. That string of 4 consecutive victories was highlighted by unranked Tyler Dow’s pin of #8 Abe Assad at 184. Iowa’s #3 ranked heavyweight Tony Cassioppi earned a decision over Trent Hillger that tied the score.
With the match tied at 18 a piece, officials were forced to turn to wrestling’s tiebreak criteria. Iowa won based on the match points they earned in non-fall matches. While I understand that when you reach the level of excellence that Wisconsin has in sports there are no “moral” victories, this was a helluva effort put forth by these boys.
The Badgers get back on the mats next weekend with trips to Northwestern on Friday at 7 p.m. (CST) and Nebraska on Sunday at 2 p.m. (CST). Both matches will be streamed on Big Ten Plus.