WBB: Illinois leads wire-to-wire and blows out Wisconsin by 23
Super Bowl Sunday wasn't so super for the Badgers who have lost nine of 10 games.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team started slowly and finished slowly in a 74-51 loss to the Illinois Fighting Illini. Only one UW player scored in double figures while five Illini players dropped 10 or more points.
Wisconsin continues to play with fire in regards to earning a bid to the Big Ten Tournament this year, especially with Rutgers picking up their second conference win on Sunday and Northwestern getting their first.
The Eagles won the Super Bowl after this game so, if I’m being completely transparent here, I don’t really have a ton of thoughts on this game. So, uh, yeah…here is my full breakdown and analysis anyways:
Final Score
Wisconsin Badgers (11-13 overall, 2-11 Big Ten): 51
RV Illinois Fighting Illini (19-5 overall, 9-4 Big Ten): 74
Four Factors
eFG%: 39.6
Turnover%: 23.1
Off. Rebound%: 18.2
FTA/FGA: 39.6
Key Stats
FG%: 35.4 (17-of-48)
Opp. FG%: 45.6 (26-of-57)
3P%: 40.0 (4-of-10)
Opp. 3P%: 52.4 (11-of-21)
FT%: 68.4 (13-of-19)
Opp. FT%: 91.7 (11-of-12)
Points Per Possession: 0.785
Opponent Points Per Possession: 1.194
Rebounds: 27 (six offensive)
Opponent Rebounds: 38 (11 offensive)
Turnovers: 15
Forced Turnovers: 12
Team Leaders
Halle Douglass: six points (2-of-4 FG, 1-of-1 3P), two rebounds, one assist, one steal, -22
Serah Williams: 14 points (3-of-11 FG), five rebounds (two offensive), one assist, -13
Carter McCray: seven points (3-of-9 FG), five rebounds, two steals, -5
D’Yanis Jimenez: four points (2-of-4 FG), two rebounds, two assists, +1
Illinois Team Leaders
Kendall Bostic: 15 points (7-of-14 FG), 11 rebounds, three assists, two blocks, three steals, +21
Adalia McKenzie: 18 points (8-of-16 FG, 2-of-4 3P), eight rebounds (three offensive), six assists, one steal, +19
Genesis Bryant: 11 points (1-of-7 FG, 1-of-3 3P), five rebounds, seven assists, +14
Three-ish Thoughts
My first four bullet points from this game are as follows: “terrible transition defense,” “terrible offensive execution/play design,” “terrible first quarter,” and “second quarter is no better.” This game was pretty much decided after the opening 10 minutes, which Illinois won by 15 points.
The Badgers, who normally don’t foul much, committed seven personal fouls in the first period which Genesis Bryant converted into six free throws made. The Badgers shot 25.0% from the field while the Illini made 53.3% of their shots. UW turned it over five times…Illinois turned it over once. You get the picture.
At halftime, Wisconsin only had one (1) player who made more than one (1) field goal. Shoutout to D’Yanis Jimenez for going 2-of-3 in the first half! While things technically improved for UW in the second quarter, they still went into the break down 17 points.Speaking of Jimenez, she played solidly in 15 minutes off the bench on Sunday. While she rolled her ankle in the third quarter, an area of her body that she had injured before, she was able to shake it off and return to play.
I think she has gotten better on defense throughout the season, but she is still wildly turnover prone on offense and uses too many possessions for a player who doesn’t score efficiently. She led the team with two assists on Sunday while also chipping in a pair of rebounds. Jimenez was also the only player on the team with a positive (+1) plus/minus rating.Serah Williams turned the ball over a ton (four times) in the first quarter but, to her credit, she didn’t commit another turnover the rest of the game. While she averages 3.3 turnovers per game, which is bad, her turnover rate is only 16.1%, which is pretty good. She’s an extremely high usage player and those players, even when they aren’t ball handlers, are going to turn the ball over some.
The Illini offense bogged down in third quarter, going over three and a half minutes without scoring a point, but the Badgers couldn’t take advantage and were never able to cut the lead to single digits.
Wisconsin’s inability to finish at the rim has been a glaring problem for years. On Sunday, the were 6-of-15 on layups according to the official box score and 8-of-17 at the rim according to Torvik’s box score. Illinois, on the other hand, was at 9-of-13 and 9-of-14 respectively. Williams and Carter McCray were a combined 6-of-20 from the field in this game.
QUICK THOUGHTS: Illinois had 11 fastbreak points to Wisconsin’s zero; the Illini had 20 assists on 26 made baskets for an extremely pleasing to watch offense; Kendall Bostic (one of my favorite players in the conference) is an automatic double-double, she rules; freshman Berry Wallace has a nice outside shot but needs to take better care of the ball; Wisconsin’s bench outscored the Illini bench by seven points; Alie Bisballe looks like a promising post player for the Badgers
Final Thought
We are barreling towards the end of the regular season and Wisconsin only has five guaranteed games remaining on the schedule. Were the season to end today, the Badgers would be in the Big Ten Tournament. However, as we just noted, the season does NOT end today.
Here are UW’s five remaining games, along with their win probability according to Torvik:
at No. 22 Michigan State, 4%
at Penn State, 22%
vs. Northwestern, 57%
vs. No. 1 UCLA, 1%
at Iowa, 4%
As shocking as this may sound, I think all Wisconsin has to do to make the BTT is beat Northwestern at home. That would give them three conference wins, while depriving a team behind them in the standings of a crucial win themselves.
For reference, here are the bottom five teams in the Big Ten (three of whom won’t qualify for the Big Ten Tournament):
Wisconsin, 2-11
Rutgers, 2-11
Northwestern, 1-10
Purdue, 1-11
Penn State, 1-12
UW plays at MSU tonight and the Spartans have lost two of their last three games, including a 10-point home loss to arch-rival Michigan on Sunday. MSU also has their California road trip coming up after playing Wisconsin so maybe the Badgers get lucky and catch the Spartans looking ahead?
I doubt it, but I’ll be locked in on B1G+ to find out for you, dear reader!
Next Game: Wednesday, Feb. 12; at No. 22 Michigan State Spartans; 5:30 p.m. CT; B1G+; Breslin Center; East Lansing, Mich.