Wisconsin women’s basketball: UW goes on road, beats Purdue for second time

After every Wisconsin women’s hoops home game, head coach Marisa Moseley takes the microphone and addresses the crowd. One of the main messages of her speech every game is: keep coming back, we’re building something here. The Badgers lived up to those words on Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, the Wisconsin Badgers (8-20 overall, 5-13 Big Ten) traveled to West Lafayette, Ind. to take on Purdue (16-13 overall, 7-11 Big Ten) in their final regular season game of the year. With a win, UW would finish the regular season with their most conference wins since 2014-15, and complete a regular season series sweep for the first time since that same season.

The first time these two teams played, Wisconsin scored a total of two points in the first quarter. In this one, the Badgers took control of the game from the jump. After falling behind early, UW closed the first quarter on a 15-3 run to take a 17-8 lead. The Badgers locked the Boilermakers down on the defensive end, holding Purdue scoreless for the final 4:11 of the quarter.

Purdue found their groove in the second quarter but the Badgers continued to impress on the road, responding to every punch thrown their way. The Boilermakers were able to cut the UW lead to as few as seven with 3:24 to play in the half. Julie Pospisilova responded with a three-pointer to extend the lead back to 10. At the conclusion of the half, Bucky led 34-23.

Pospisilova led the Badgers in the first half, tallying 13 points including three buckets from beyond the arc.

Coming out of the half, the Badgers were able to extend their lead to 14, their biggest lead of the game. Purdue responded with a 14-2 run to bring the Boilermakers within one possession. After UW mounted their largest comeback in program history to beat Purdue on February 13, the Boilermakers were hoping to end the year with a comeback win of their own.

The Badgers had other plans however. After their once 14 point lead was cut to two, UW finished the third quarter on a 6-0 run, extending the lead back to eight points. Just like the first quarter, Purdue ended the third on a scoring drought, not scoring for the final 3:32.

Purdue opened the fourth quarter on a 8-0 run to tie the game at 48. Once again, UW responded with a 5-0 run of their own thanks to an and-one from Halle Douglass (more on her later) and a layup from Brooke Schramek. The Badgers held a small lead throughout the entire quarter, trading buckets with Purdue.

Krystyna Ellew hit a jumper with 1:25 remaining to give the Badgers a 61-57 lead. After that, it was Jeanae Terry time. The Purdue guard scored the next five points of the game, three free-throws and a layup with 0:13 remaining, to give Purdue a 62-61 lead, their first lead since it was 5-4.

Douglass was not going to leave West Lafayette without a victory. After receiving the inbounds pass with 12.1 seconds remaining, the sophomore guard drove coast to coast and finished at the rim with her left hand to give the Badgers a 63-62 lead with just seconds remaining.

Following a Purdue timeout, Brooke Schramek came up with the play of the night. Terry drove to the rim but her layup was blocked by Schramek, giving the Badgers the win to cap off their regular season.

“They say you want to be playing your best basketball and February and March so I don’t know if that was our best but we had enough to finish it and I’m really proud of the team effort,” Moseley said after the game.

What an impressive road win for Moseley and the Badgers.

Notable statlines:

• Julie Pospisilova: 19 points, five rebounds, four assists
• Halle Douglass: 16 points, eight rebounds, six assists
• Brooke Schramek: nine points, six rebounds, five assists, three blocked shots

Up next: The Big Ten Tournament starts on Weds. March 2 in Indianapolis.