Wisconsin women’s basketball: UW beats UW-Oshkosh 81-47 in preseason tuneup

These preseason games against various schools from around the UW System shouldn’t cause any angst among the teams located in Madison. These are just warm up games! A chance to play against a different colored jersey for the first time since last season! Nothing to worry about, right?

Well, I’m sure the team and head coach Marisa Moseley weren’t nervous about playing UW-Oshkosh on Sunday, but I kind of was! What if the Badgers lost? How embarrassing in the first game for the new coach! Turns out, my fears were completely unsubstantiated as Wisconsin pounded the Titans 81-47 and showed a lot of promise while doing so.

The Badgers had four players in double figures on the afternoon, led by Julie Pospisilova who scored 15 and Sydney Hilliard who added 13. As a team, the Badgers shot 54.4% (31-of-57) from the field and 10-of-21 (47.6%) from three-point range.

Transfer guard Katie Nelson (who came over with Moseley from Boston University) was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc for 12 points and dished out a team leading six assists. More importantly for someone who will have the ball in her hands often this season, Nelson only had one turnover and even added in two steals on the day.

Moseley mentioned how Nelson and Hilliard are able to complement each other out on the court on both sides of the ball: “Those two are a great combination both at the top of our defense and also offensively playing off of one another making sure we know where each other are at.”

Pospisilova was 3-of-6 from deep and also chipped in with five rebounds, two assists and a steal. One thing she’ll have to work on moving forward is picking up cheap fouls. Pospisilova had two early fouls in the first quarter that caused her to find a seat on the bench.

Moseley noted that players may have had some first game jitters, especially with fans back in the stands after a season without them.

“To have fans back in the stands, to settle in after that first quarter where we seemed a little bit jittery and had Julie (Pospisilova) pick up two quick fouls and play without her, I’m really proud of their effort and hopefully our fans can appreciate the discipline, the organization and the style of basketball that we’re going to play this year,” Moseley said.

A few other notable stat lines for the Badgers on Sunday:

• Senior Alex Luehring had four blocks to go along with 11 points.
• Swedish sophomore Lovisa Djurstrom had five rebounds (two offensive) in only nine minutes of action.
• Freshman Krystyna Ellew had six points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals in her first career game for UW.
• In the Battle of Schramek Sisters, Wisconsin’s Brooke came out on top against her older sister Kendal’s Titans. Brooke had four points, four boards, three assists and two blocks.