Photo by: Tony Vasquez for Indy Sports Daily
Assembly Hall- Bloomington,IN
In a game that had just as much drama as a season ending episode of Grey’s Anatomy, the Hoosier’s took on the Wisconsin Badgers in a B1G battle. IU was looking to bounce back from a 3 game loosing streak and take their current winning streak to 3 games. The 20th ranked Hoosiers had recently defeated Minnesota and Penn State before coming into the game. Meanwhile, Wisconsin was looking to stop their current losing streak at 3 games.
The 1st quarter was controlled by Wisconsin who was able to find open shots but not easily. The Hoosiers struggled to just get the ball to drop in the 1st quarter, and had a few careless mistakes on offense. They just seemed to start off cold which let the Badgers jump up to a double digit lead early.
In the 2nd quarter the Hoosier’s started to find their way but the Badgers continued in stride and kept a double digit lead throughout the entire quarter. Indiana went on another scoring drought late in the quarter failing to drop a basket in the final 2 minutes of the game. Grace Berger and Brenna Wise both went into the half with 0 points while Patburg finished the half with 8 and Gulbe with 6 points. Both teams struggled with turnovers but the biggest discrepancy was with Wisconsin shooting 46% while IU was shooting at 29%.
Hoosiers came out of the half with more spunk. IU was able to get a body inside to stop the badgers from scoring then came down and drained a 3 as the shot clock was expiring. Gulbe was able to get the ball inside and get Wisconsin to foul her as she was shooting slowly helping IU erase the lead Wisconsin has. Even with a few turnovers that led to scores, the Badgers were able to finish the 3rd quarter with a double digit lead.
In the 4th the Hoosiers started moving the ball inside which led to fouls. Then a steal and score from by IU brought the lead within 5 points. 48-43. The momentum seemed to be shifting and the crowd felt it too and came alive. A moving screen by IU mellowed it out. Wise got the energy back up by holding her own and taking a charge. After some back and forth scoring possessions midway through the lead was back to 5 and both teams seemed to be rolling. Wisconsin was able to rip the ball away from Gulbe and break away for an easy layup to push the lead to 8, but then had an off ball foul that put IU back to the line with the Hoosiers being in the bonus. The closest the Hoosiers have came to tying the game at this point is 5 games. A big 3 by the Badger’s Popisilova pushed the lead back to 8 with 3 minutes left in the game. IU moved the ball around and got it inside to Gulbe where she got the and 1. That was followed by a turnover by Wisconsin and IU came down and Patburg was sent to the line where she brought the lead down to 3 with 2 minutes left. Wisconsin seemed to get their bearings back under them for a few more baskets to move the lead back up to 6. With 27 seconds left IU gets the lead back down to 3 and they get the ball back with 20 seconds left to go in the game. Jalen Penn drills the game tying 3 point shot with 14.6 seconds left in the game. After a charging foul by Wisconsin and a missed last chance shot by IU the game went into overtime with the score 61-61.
Overtime starts with a great drive by Burger who gets her first basket of the night. They didn’t slow down and pushed their first lead of the night to 5 points. Then Patburg drains a 3 to make the score 69 to 61. With under a minute left, Patburg DRAINS a leaning jumper to push the lead up to 10. IU pulls this game out without leading the game until overtime 75-65! Holmes finished with a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. IU moves to 17-5 on the season, and their next game will be February 3rd when they visit Purdue.
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