Wisconsin took advantage of 21 Michigan State turnovers to send the Spartan women's basketball team to its second loss in three Big Ten games Wednesday, 84-71.
Allyssa DeHaan led Michigan State (9-6, 1-2) with 27 points, hitting all 11 of her free throw tries, and also grabbed 12 rebounds.
But the Spartans had little chance because they couldn't take care of the ball.
Advertisement "We didn't handle their pressure," MSU coach Suzy Merchant said. "Everything we tried to do or intended to do ended up in a turnover."
Kalisha Keane added 17 points for the Spartans.The loss snapped an eight-game MSU winning streak over Wisconsin.
"I just thought we played without a lot of focus," Merchant said.
Freshman Alyssa Karel scored 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field to lead the Badgers (8-5, 1-2).
Seniors Jolene Anderson and Janese Banks added 18 points for Wisconsin, which led 36-32 at halftime and then pulled away to take a 72-54 advantage with about six minutes left.
Taja Wilson added 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Karel more than doubled her previous scoring high of nine points.
Michigan State led by as many as seven points in the first half, but the Badgers closed the half on a 15-4 run to go up 36-32 into the break.
Courtney Davidson's 3-pointer, her first since the Oklahoma game, put MSU up 28-21 with 5:27 left in the half.
Keane led the Spartans with 11 points in the first 20 minutes on 4-of-5 shooting, while DeHaan was also 4-for-5 from the field with 10 points.
The Spartans return to action Saturday to take on Penn State at noon at Breslin Center.
Wow. I watched this one live streamed from yahoo sports. What a stinker. We managed to get some boards and DeHaan had another great game. In spite of all the defence she draws she still manages to get her points. Our team can really be great when her supporting cast matures. For now, it is really painful to watch them self distruct every other game. For the rest of the season our opponents will focus on stopping DeHaan and harrassing the freshmen to get those turnovers. Anyone with any speed is just going to run a transition game. I wonder with the weak Big Ten if we will even get a NCAA bid. I hope so but it's beginning to look iffy.
REMAINING SCHEDULE:
Sat 1/5/2008 Penn State East Lansing, Mich. CBS Noon
Thu 1/10/2008 Iowa East Lansing, Mich. Big Ten Network 8 p. m.
Sun 1/13/2008 Michigan Ann Arbor, Mich. Big Ten Network Noon
Thu 1/17/2008 Northwestern Evanston, Ill. 8 p. m.
Sun 1/20/2008 Indiana East Lansing, Mich. 2 p. m.
Thu 1/24/2008 Illinois Champaign, Ill. 8 p. m.
Sun 1/27/2008 Minnesota Minneapolis, Minn. Big Ten Network 1 p. m.
Thu 1/31/2008 Michigan East Lansing, Mich. 7 p. m.
Thu 2/7/2008 Iowa Iowa City, Iowa 8 p. m.
Mon 2/11/2008 Purdue East Lansing, Mich. Big Ten Network 7 p. m.
Thu 2/14/2008 Indiana Bloomington, Ind. 7 p. m.
Sun 2/17/2008 Penn State State College, Pa. Big Ten Network 2 p. m.
Thu 2/21/2008 Northwestern East Lansing, Mich. 7 p. m.
Sun 2/24/2008 Purdue West Lafayette, Ind. ESPN2 1 p. m.
Thu 2/28/2008 Illinois East Lansing, Mich. 7 p .m.
Labels: MSU Womens Basketball, Suzy Merchant
