The Badgers had no business winning that game in the final minute of the game against Harvard in the WBIT bracket. The Badgers were able to hold on and win 64-61 in chaos-filled endings both in regulation and overtime.
Wisconsin was down eight with less than a minute left and found a way to claw back to a tie and send it to overtime. Kyrah Daniels was able to make a couple of big threes. Laci Steele had a steal, Ronnie Porter had a tie-up with the ball going to the Badgers, and a final bucket helped seal the tie.
Pingeton said she was impressed with the team's resilience, and she said she reminded them that this was a life lesson, "Right now it's basketball, but later on it's going to be life, and you know you're going to hit some challenges and some adversities along the way. Relationships are hard, marriage is hard, work is hard, but you just got to keep showing up, and you got to keep believing, and you know that's what this group of young ladies has done."
Wisconsin is in a postseason semi-finals for the first time since 2007
It was a remarkable comeback and something that absolutely wowed the Kohl Center crowd. It brought everyone alive for overtime. And then the end of the game went into chaos again. With only four seconds left, Ronnie Porter was able to draw a charge. Yet, it was originally called a block.
Robin Pingeton challenged, and the call was reversed, and the Badgers would hold on to win the game. It was the cardiac Badgers, but a survive-and-advance moment if you ever had one.
Pingeton went on to remark about the bang-bang call involving Ronnie Porter's block/charge and how grateful she was to have been able to challenge it and get it overturned, remembering there was a time before challenges were allowed.
Porter came up big in both moments at the end of the game, with hustle plays to extend the Badgers' season. She's the one who helped generate the tie-up to force overtime, and she got into position and drew the charge to seal the victory.
Now the Badgers will head to the semi-finals of the WBIT to face off against Columbia on March 30th. The semi-finals and final will be held in Wichita to close out the WBIT. If the Badgers can get by Columbia, they would take on the winner of Kansas and BYU for the WBIT championship.