WBB Recap: Wisconsin dominated on the glass, scoreboard in 22-point loss to South Dakota State
Rough shooting from deep and the charity stripe also doomed the Badgers to defeat.
The Wisconsin Badgers went on the road for the first time in the 2024-25 season and will return home licking their wounds after being decimated by the South Dakota State Jackrabbits, 79-57, on Wednesday night. Serah Williams was her usual productive self, but the rest of the team struggled on offense, often going three-plus minutes without scoring.
Here is the full recap and analysis of UW’s first loss of the year.
Final Score
Wisconsin Badgers (2-1 overall, 0-0 Big Ten): 57
South Dakota State Jackrabbits (3-0 overall, 0-0 Summit): 79
Four Factors
eFG%: 44.6
Turnover%: 16.4
Off. Rebound%: 8.8
FTA/FGA: 21.4
Key Stats
FG%: 41.1 (23-of-56)
Opp. FG%: 51.7 (30-of-58)
3P%: 26.7 (4-of-15)
Opp. 3P%: 42.9 (6-of-14)
FT%: 58.3 (7-of-12)
Opp. FT%: 76.5 (13-of-17)
Points Per Possession: 0.851
Opponent Points Per Possession: 1.113
Rebounds: 22 (three offensive)
Opponent Rebounds: 42 (11 offensive)
Turnovers: 11
Forced Turnovers: 15
Team Leaders
Ronnie Porter: 11 points (4-of-9 FG, 0-of-2 3P), one rebound, four assists, four steals, -12
Serah Williams: 19 points (8-of-13 FG), nine rebounds (two offensive), four assists, two blocks, -18
Natalie Leuzinger: nine points (4-of-7 FG, 1-of-3 3P), two rebounds, one assist, -14
Carter McCray: eight points (4-of-6 FG), two rebounds, three steals, -9
South Dakota State Team Leaders
Katie Vasecka: 10 points (4-of-6 FG, 2-of-2 3P), five rebounds (one offensive), two blocks, two steals, +4
Paige Meyer: 11 points (4-of-7 FG), four rebounds (one offensive), six assists, +24
Mesa Byom: 13 points (4-of-4 FG, 1-of-1 3P), six rebounds (one offensive), +5
Three-ish Thoughts
On Wednesday night, the Badgers were outworked on the boards in a way I didn’t think a team with Serah Williams and Carter McCray could be. South Dakota State ended up +20 (42-22) in the rebounding column and had an 11-3 advantage on the offensive glass.
Every Jackrabbit that played 15 or more minutes, and that was eight of them, had two or more rebounds and five players had four or more. Star big Brooklyn Meyer (who, scoring-wise, was mostly kept under wraps by Williams) led the way with seven (three offensive) but it was clearly a team effort to keep Wisconsin off the glass and it worked.
South Dakota State ended with 15 second chance points while the Badgers had, uh, ::double checks notes:: zero. All of this is a Wisconsin recipe for disaster and a 22-point loss. Woof.After Williams hit a jumper to give UW a 6-4 lead with 7:38 to go in the first quarter, the Badgers didn’t score again until there was 3:02 left in the opening period. That’s 4:36 of game time!
Wisconsin then went the opening 3:22 of the second quarter without scoring, 2:07 near the end of the third quarter which was a part of 4:05 minutes where UW only scored two points, and then separate scoring droughts of 3:33 and 2:52 in the fourth quarter.
The Jackrabbits played good defense and the Badgers weren’t hitting the shots they got. Another recipe for disaster if we’re keeping it 100. The only player who was able to produce offense consistently on Wednesday was Williams, and sometimes Ronnie Porter, but that was nowhere near enough to counter SDSU’s balanced offensive attack.Wisconsin, for the third straight game, didn’t turn the ball over much when the game was still in the balance. Five of their turnovers came in the fourth quarter and everyone kind of already knew that they weren’t coming back.
Point guard Ronnie Porter had zero turnovers and Serah Williams, who touches the ball on most possessions she’s on the floor, only had one. After the past seasons of turnovers just killing the Badgers game after game, it’s awesome to see how much they’ve cleaned that up this year.However, on the flip side, there was one player who struggled with turnovers on Wednesday night. D’Yanis Jimenez, who has been getting backup ball-handling duties this year, turned the ball over five times in 16 minutes. Her personal turnover rate was 46%, meaning she turned the ball over nearly half of the times she touched it. Jimenez was also 0-of-5 from the field and had an absolutely insane (in a bad way) usage rate of 39.7%.
While she had some solid plays on offense too (she dished out a pair of assists and drew a couple of fouls on decisive drives to the rim), Jimenez needs to slow down when she has the ball. I like that Moseley didn’t pull her from the game immediately after some of her turnovers/shot selection, because young players need to work some of the kinks out of their game in live action, but Jimenez can’t be an offensive black hole like that if she doesn’t have her shot going.MAKE YOUR GOD DAMNED FREE THROWS, BADGERS, WHAT THE HELL?!?
The Badgers made 10 three-pointers in their first game and eight in their second and it was a big reason why they were able to pull away from their first two opponents. On Wednesday night, the threes weren’t falling and UW struggled mightily on offense because of it.
Lily Krahn provided a nice spark off the bench, hitting 2-of-4 three-pointers, but Tess Myers was only 1-of-4, Porter was 0-of-2, and Natalie Leuzinger was 1-of-3. Myers, who had scored in double-figures in the first two games, only registering three points against SDSU was too tough for UW’s offense to overcome.
Final Thought
Wisconsin’s highest win probability during the game was at tip-off. After that, it was a methodical march to a loss that never really seemed awful until you looked at the score and realized the Badgers were down double-digits again.
This was a game that Wisconsin fans, and I’m assuming players, had circled on the calendar as a “measuring stick” matchup. The Jackrabbits have been one of the best mid-major teams in the country over the past few years and were coming off an upset of a ranked Creighton team. While I don’t think UW was completely overmatched, they were clearly the second best team on the court and have more of the mountain to climb than they may have thought before the game.
The Badgers have three straight home games coming up in which they should be favored before heading off to the Cancun Challenge during Thanksgiving weekend. The loss to South Dakota State is only brutal if they let it affect Sunday’s game against Milwaukee. If they use the loss to improve on some of their weaknesses? Well, then it might just count as “win” in, uh, the moral victory sense.
Next Game: Sunday, Nov. 17; vs. Milwaukee; 2:00 p.m. CT; B1G+; Kohl Center