Madison Reporter

The Wisconsin women’s basketball team took on Illinois recently, and the Badgers came away with a 70-62 redemption victory at the Kohl Center. 

The Badgers improved to 6-16 on the season and are 3-9 in the Big Ten, according to a release on the team’s website. This brought the team’s win total to more than last season already. Wisconsin was very efficient from the field, shooting at a 47.2% clip and 39.1% from beyond the arc. The Badger defense held Illinois to only 39% and 23.5% from three-point land. The Badgers had a season high 21 assists in the game while turning over the ball 13 times. The win comes after Illinois defeated the Badgers earlier this season.

“I think it was the complete team effort,” head coach Marisa Mosely said in a press release about the game. "We got contributions from everybody and to me that was huge. We've been preaching 'share the ball and make extra passes,' and I felt like we started to see that more and more today."

Wisconsin trailed by four with 3:37 left in the first quarter but the Badgers turned things on with a 10-0 run to go up 18-12. Highlighting the run was five points by Julie Pospisilova. In the second quarter, the Badgers went up 22-12 with 8:49 on the clock, but then Illinois had a 10-0 run of their own to tie the game up with 5:12 left in the half. The Badgers then went on a 13-2 run to end the half with a 35-24 lead.

The third quarter was fairly even but with 2:46 left in the fourth quarter, Illinois got within five points. However Halle Douglass went off for five straight points to go up 62-52 with just under two minutes to go. It was a seven-point game with a minute left, but Wisconsin hit 6-of-8 from the free throw line to close the game out victoriously.

Four players scored in double figures for Wisconsin, led by sophomore forward Brooke Schramek with a game high 17 points — one point off from her career best. Katie Nelson and Pospisilova had 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Douglass had 12 points. Tara Stauffacher had a career high nine points on a very good shooting night, going 4-for-5. 

Mosely had high praise for Schramek following the win.

“We are not as good of a team when Brooke is not on the floor,” Mosely said. “She is aggressive and plays hard. She wants to do the right thing. She was huge tonight on both ends. Her versatility is just a lot to work with. She can knock in threes, she is able to score in the paint, she can pass the ball a little bit, so it was great to see her come out and be able to do a little bit of all of that. I'm proud of her and I hope to see this trend keep going.”