2024 Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament: Day 2 Recap
Two close games early and two blowouts late, but we've got the eight best teams in the Big Ten left to fight it out for the title!
MINNEAPOLIS – The second day of the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament had a pair of close games early and then a pair of blowouts in the evening. All four favorites ended up winning, which sets up the most appealing matchups for BTN and FOX and I’m nothing if not chiefly concerned with providing value to the shareholders and TV executives.
FINAL SCORES (winners in BOLD)
No. 8 Maryland 75 - No. 9 Illinois 65
No. 5 Nebraska 64 - No. 12 Purdue 56
No. 7 Penn State 80 - No. 10 Wisconsin 56
No. 6 Michigan 76 - No. 11 Minnesota 57
TOP PLAYERS
Illinois Fighting Illini
Makira Cook: 17 points (7-of-24 FG, 1-of-4 3P), five rebounds (two offensive), eight assists, -9
Camille Hobby: 16 points (7-of-11 FG, 0-of-2 3P), seven rebounds (two offensive), two blocks, two steals, -8
Kendall Bostic: 11 points (5-of-9 FG, 1-of-2 3P), 11 rebounds (two offensive), two steals, even (fouled out)
Maryland Terrapins
Bri McDaniel: 20 points (8-of-14 FG, 0-of-1 3P), 10 rebounds (one offensive), three steals, +8
Shyanne Sellers: 11 points (4-of-7 FG), one rebound, eight assists, two blocks, one steal, +2 (fouled out)
Jakia Brown-Turner: 14 points (5-of-15 FG, 1-of-2 3P), eight rebounds (three offensive), two assists, one block, +10
Purdue Boilermakers
Abbey Ellis: 11 points (5-of-16 FG, 0-of-3 3P), four rebounds, four assists, two steals, -15
Sophie Swanson: 25 points (9-of-13 FG, 7-of-9 3P), two rebounds, two steals, -3
Jeanae Terry: four points (2-of-4 FG), 11 rebounds (two offensive), three assists, three blocks, three steals, -4 (fouled out)
Nebraska Cornhuskers
Jaz Shelley: 19 points (6-of-12 FG, 4-of-9 3P), seven rebounds (one offensive), seven assists, two steals, +13
Alexis Markowski: 12 points (5-of-11 FG), seven rebounds (three offensive), six assists, one steal, +27
Callin Hake: 15 points (5-of-8 FG, 3-of-6 3P), two rebounds, one assist, +5
Wisconsin Badgers
Ronnie Porter: 15 points (6-of-12 FG, 1-of-4 3P), one assist, one steal, -23
Serah Williams: 10 points (5-of-8 FG), 10 rebounds (three offensive), three blocks, -12 (16th straight double-double…a BIG TEN RECORD!)
Brooke Schramek: nine points (4-of-5 FG, 1-of-2 3P), two rebounds, one assist, one block, -22
Natalie Leuzinger: eight points (1-of-10 FG, 1-of-8 3P), six rebounds (one offensive), three assists, -10
Penn State Nittany Lions
Makenna Marisa: 10 points (2-of-5 FG, 2-of-4 3P), four rebounds (two offensive), five assists, one block, +12
Kylie Lavelle: 14 points (6-of-7 FG, 2-of-2 3P), three rebounds (one offensive), +12
Ashley Owusu: 13 points (5-of-11 FG, 1-of-2 3P), six rebounds (two offensive), two assists, one steal, +15
Jayla Oden: eight points (4-of-7 FG, 0-of-2 3P), three rebounds, two assists, one block, three steals, +11
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Amaya Battle: 22 points (7-of-15 FG, 1-of-2 3P), two rebounds, three assists, one block, one steal, -13
Mallory Heyer: two points (1-of-5 FG, 0-of-4 3P), 17 rebounds (two offensive), two assists, -8
Ayianna Johnson: 12 points (5-of-10 FG), seven rebounds (one offensive), two blocks, -1
Michigan Wolverines
Laila Phelia: 23 points (7-of-17 FG, 2-of-3 3P), three rebounds (one offensive), one assist, +22
Lauren Hansen: 14 points (5-of-13 FG, 2-of-7 3P), four rebounds, six assists, two steals, +19
Jordan Hobbs: seven points (3-of-9 FG, 1-of-4 3P), four rebounds (one offensive), seven assists, two blocks, +17
FUN FACTS
This was the 69th (nice) game between Michigan and Minnesota in history. Gophers hold a 36-33 advantage.
Mallory Heyer’s (Minnesota) 17 rebounds are a career-high.
SERAH WILLIAMS BROKE THE BIG TEN’S CONSECUTIVE DOUBLE-DOUBLE MARK WITH HER 16TH IN A ROW! WOOOOOOOOO!
Williams leads the Big Ten in total rebounds (305) this year.
Penn State never trailed against Wisconsin.
PSU’s 24-point win is the largest in the tourney so far.
Sophie Swanson’s (Purdue) seven three-pointers are tied for fourth-most in a BTT game. It is also Purdue’s freshman single-game record.
This was the 150th game of Jaz Shelley’s (Nebraska) career.
The Huskers have won five straight against Purdue and now lead the all-time series, 11-10.
Illinois had a 13-point lead in the first quarter and…lost.
Maryland is now 17-0 all-time against Illinois lmao.
Bri McDaniel (Maryland) recorded her 19th double-double of the season.
Kendall Bostic (Illinois) notched her 50th career double-digit rebounding game.
POSTGAME QUOTES ILLINOIS
Head coach Shauna Green on what she can take away from this season: “We can take a lot away from this. Obviously we've learned a lot this year, and a lot of times we've learned from some adversity. I think just the consistency piece. You know, Maryland, what I've always loved about Brenda's teams are their toughness and their physicality and just that grit they have to them. You've got to have that. You've got to have that for 40 minutes.
You especially need it in March, and I thought at times we just have to be more consistent with that. There's times they just drove us down, and we've got to have more resistance.”
POSTGAME QUOTES MARYLAND
Allie Kubek on playing 30+ minutes for the third time this year: “Yeah, like you said, just always being ready when my number is called. When I'm in there, just doing my best, whether it's scoring, rebounding, or playing defense, whatever my coaches need me to do and whatever my teammates need me to do. And just being there to do what we've got to do to win.”
Head coach Brenda Frese on defensive adjustments after the first quarter: “When you look at the stats in that first quarter and just us not guarding, I really thought we were going to play more zone in this game because we had the first two games. I thought the switch defensively when we went all predominantly man, we just got a lot more aggressive, dialed up, and made them have to take difficult shots.”
POSTGAME QUOTES PURDUE
Jeanae Terry on starting 60 games in her Purdue career and what it means to be a Boilermaker: “It means everything. Just the family atmosphere I've received since being here for my three years is a lifelong relationship that I have forever. I'm so happy to be able to put this uniform on for these supporters and for these fans that come out and watch us every night. I love being a Boilermaker.”
Head coach Katie Gearlds on the future of her team: “Those kids, they're not able to do what they do if they don't have the leadership that Jeanae [Terry] and Abbey [Ellis] and Madison [Layden] and Caitlyn [Harper] provided, but for us moving forward, this was really our first recruiting class that we kind of put together with me as the head coach.
Obviously we've got a lot of things that we've got to continue to grow and get better, but I'll tell you what, those kids got a lot of great experience in some really tight situations that we're going to dive into this summer. Hopefully we can just continue to get better and better and chase getting Purdue back onto the top.”
POSTGAME QUOTES NEBRASKA
Alexis Markowski on her career high six assists: “[Purdue] were definitely collapsing and doubling from the low side, so I knew I'd have teammates open on the perimeter. I just needed to be patient and make the right reads. Lucky for me, my teammates hit big shots.”
Minnesota native Callin Hake on playing in Minneapolis: “Obviously this is home for me, so that's super special. But wherever we're playing, I absolutely adore playing with these girls, and that doesn't change anything. Having family here makes it sweet, but we're here to win, survive and advance.
Head coach Amy Williams on settling into the game: “I thought early in the game probably a credit to Purdue's defense, but I thought we were settling for a little -- a few too many perimeter shots, kind of quick perimeter shots. We're okay with those shots. We have great shooters that were confident in them shooting it, but we wanted to get paint touches first and be able to work hard for the paint touches.
I thought early in the game we were maybe just playing a little frantic, taking quick shots, and we needed to kind of settle into the tournament, settle into our game, and be willing to work a little bit harder to get the ball inside, inside-outside looks.”
POSTGAME QUOTES WISCONSIN
Serah Williams on what she wants to improve for next year: “Definitely my passing. I kind of want to play like a mix of [Nikola] Jokic and Anthony Davis. So just being able to move the ball around the court is the next step for me.”
Brooke Schramek on trying to come back against Penn State: “We had a few runs here and there, but we just couldn't stop their runs. We couldn't match that. We kept trying to fight back, but they were knocking down everything. They were pushing the ball really well and finding us where we were messing up on our transition rotations.”
Head coach Marisa Moseley on what needed to be better on defense: “So I think we needed to have much better communication. Then also just being a little bit -- having a little bit more toughness there to battle, if it was a mismatch.”
POSTGAME QUOTES PENN STATE
Ashley Owusu, a grad transfer, on PSU making the BTT quarterfinals for the first time since 2014: “It feels great. Being a part of history is always awesome. Just being able to come out and do it with a team that I love and coaches that support me is awesome.”
Head coach Carolyn Kieger on the same topic: “When we came here, we wanted to put the jersey back in a better place and put it back where Penn State belongs, which is back playing deep into March. Can't say enough about our team like Makenna Marisa, she bleeds blue and white. She stuck through it all, through the good, through the bad, through the ugly.
Now I'm just so excited for her and her teammates to feel what it's like to play through March. They deserve it. They put a lot of hard work in. Really I'm just more elated for them and excited for them to feel what it feels like to be proud of themselves.”
POSTGAME QUOTES MINNESOTA
Amaya Battle on how the last two games have affected the team: “I think that we all had a great past two games. I think our team brought a lot of energy, and we just really worked super hard.
I think it gave a lot of us confidence to see what we can do, and we were down two of our players who give us a lot. I think these past two games just instilled a lot of confidence in the whole team.”Mallory Heyer on what she’s looking forward to next year: “I think just continuing to grow our game, individually and as a team, working on our team chemistry. Just continuing to get faster, continuing to get stronger, and work on our game on both ends of the floor.
This league is very veteran, and we're a very young team, and we have a ways to go. But we're willing to put the work in, and we're excited.”Head coach Dawn Plitzuweit on potential postseason play in her first year at Minnesota: “It means a great deal for us, and I believe this group has really earned that opportunity. When you look at the quality -- some of the quality of wins that we've had and you look at where we've positioned ourselves in terms of the NET, I think they've earned that opportunity, and I'm really excited for them.”
POSTGAME QUOTES MICHIGAN
Cameron Williams, channeling her inner Jon Rothstein, discussing postseason scenarios: “Every game matters at this point. This is March. We're playing for everything at this point. Every game, we want to play like it's our last.”
Head coach Kim Barnes Arico on Laila Phelia: “Sometimes people, that doesn't show up in the box score either, don't realize how much of an effort Laila exerts every night. She's like, all right, Coach, who's the other team's best player? I want that job. I want to own that role. I want to take on that responsibility.
So as much as we need her on the offensive end, she wants to do it on the defensive end as well. She just has an incredible ability to get downhill. She's a three-level scorer. She's a dynamic player. She found a way to get to the free-throw line tonight and just played her butt off.
In my opinion, she's one of the best players in the country, and she was recognized this week as a first-team All-Conference player in our league, which is really special. So a great night for her.
FRIDAY QUARTERFINAL SCHEDULE (all games on Big Ten Network)
No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes vs. No. 8 Maryland Terrapins; 11:30 a.m. CT
No. 4 Michigan State Spartans vs. No. 5 Nebraska Cornhuskers; 25 minutes after first game
No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes vs. No. 7 Penn State Nittany Lions; 5:30 p.m. CT
No. 3 Indiana Hoosiers vs. No. 6 Michigan Wolverines; 25 minutes after PSU/Iowa game