Uneven play costs Wisconsin in loss to Iowa; Hawkeyes' Caitlin Clark sets Big Ten triple-double record
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MADISON – Marisa Moseley doesn’t want to be surprised. She wants to know what her team is going to give her each time it steps on the floor.
That was the takeaway from the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball coach following the team's 102-71 loss to Iowa in the Big Ten opener in front of a season-high 3,926 fans at the Kohl Center Sunday afternoon.
The result wasn’t a surprise given the status of Iowa as the nation’s 10th ranked team and Wisconsin's role as a young and unproven group. That said, the ebbs and flows the Badgers showed in dropping their sixth straight game are what Moseley, the team’s second-year coach, wants ironed out.
“If we can capitalize and play like we did in the first and third quarters for four quarters I feel really good about our chances going forward,” she said. “We just talked a lot about our consistency as a team … We have to stay out of foul trouble and we need to know consistently what we’re going to get from our players every single game."
Freshman forward Serah Willaims overcame first-half foul trouble to score 10 of her team-high 15 points for the Badgers, who dropped to 3-7. Freshman guard Maty Wilke added 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting that included 3 for 4 from three-point range. Senior guard Sydney Hilliard was also 5 for 8 from the floor and finished with 11 points.
Julie Pospisilova, the team's leading scorer at 15.1 points per game, finished with six points on 1-for-13 shooting from the floor.
Caitlin Clark breaks record of former Racine Case star Samantha Logic
Meanwhile, Iowa got 22 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists from junior guard Caitlin Clark. That was her seventh career triple double, which moved her past former Hawkeye and Racine Case High School graduate Samantha Logic to the top of the Big Ten’s all-time list.
“I thought Caitlin could have done anything she wanted out there and I thought she really controlled the game today,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said.
Clark hit eight of 14 shots and was 2 for 5 from three-point range. Senior forward Monika Czinano (18 points, eight rebounds) made nine of 10 shots. It was that kind of day for the Hawkeyes, who carved up the Badgers for 62.9% shooting (39 of 62) overall and 52.2% (12 of 23) accuracy from the three-point line.
The game offered a pretty consistent display in that regard. Iowa’s worst quarter shooting was 50% in the third quarter. The Hawkeyes hit 67.7% in building a 57-34 halftime lead.
"We shot the ball well from all areas ...," Bluder said. "It was nice to see us get into an offensive flow."
Moseley attributed some of her team's struggles in the second quarter to slow defensive rotations and giving up points in transition.
And to her earlier point about the first and third quarters, Wisconsin was outscored by two points during those 20 minutes and by 29 in the other two.
Serah Williams, Sydney Hilliard make impact in third quarter
During the early stages of each half, though in the third quarter in particular, the Badgers showed the energy, edge and explosiveness that has helped the team played impressively for stretches this season.
In the first quarter they went on a 10-2 run after falling behind by eight. Those 10 points, which included a pull-up jumper and three by Wilke, came in about 1 minute 45 seconds.
The Badgers’ third-quarter burst was sparked by Williams, who scored her nine points in the quarter in the less than 5 minutes. Hilliard had six points in the third as she played more aggressively in her second game back from a knee injury that sidelined her for the first eight games.
The result was a 21-18 "win" for Wisconsin in the third quarter, a run that spilled over into the fourth quarter when Pospisilova’s only basket of the day and a three by Wilke cut the Iowa lead to 75-60 with 9 minutes 1 seconds left.
The Hawkeyes floored it the rest of the game and by the final buzzer had amassed a 33-point lead with about a minute left.
The Badgers, on the other hand, amassed more lessons on what it will take to win consistently in the Big Ten.
“The consistency. It goes back to that, stacking our responses” Moseley said. “But also in doing that you have to consistently do those things so day-in and day-out so we know what we’re going to get from you so that becomes expectation. It’s not a surprise or it’s not like we have to these bounce backs, it’s just that's what you get."
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Iowa's Caitlin Clark sets Big Ten triple-double record vs. Wisconsin
