Story by Ashley Beall
Drake women’s basketball lost to Wisconsin this past Sunday at Kohl Center, 66-41.
This game followed Drake’s win against Creighton, where it fought basket-for-basket against the Bluejays.
“I do think when you’re starting five goes 6-of-34, that is tough,” said Drake head coach Jennie Baranczyk in a Drake athletics press release. “We didn’t make shots. We missed a few shots early, and we stopped taking them and stopped flowing into what we do best.”
Wisconsin’s Michaela Johnson scored the first basket of the game and gave Wisconsin the early lead.
Senior Morgan Reid fought back for the Bulldogs with a jumper, evening the score 2-2.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, that was the only time the score would be tied, as the Badgers quickly pulled away with a 16-2 run.
Johnson led the Badgers with 16 points and 18 rebounds on the game.
“We played a good home basketball team today in Wisconsin,” Baranczyk said. “They had great balance in their scoring. I think Michaela Johnson makes a huge difference in this ball team from a year ago. I think obviously having Taylor Wurtz back as a senior leader makes a big difference.”
The Bulldogs didn’t come out playing as strong as they had against Creighton, and the result showed their struggle to rally back.
Redshirt junior Carly Grenfell, sophomore Ashley Bartow and freshman Lizzy Wendell each managed to score eight points.
No Bulldogs were able to break double figures.
Reid and junior Kyndal Clark, the leading scorers from the Creighton game, only scored five and three points, respectively.
“I credit Wisconsin and everything from this game today,” Baranczyk said. “I do, however, believe they didn’t get to see our best. You almost want to apologize for that. They definitely didn’t get to see the team that played on Friday against Creighton from our standpoint.”
Drake played tough defense against the Badgers and forced 13 Wisconsin turnovers.
However, the Bulldogs couldn’t pull it together to create points off turnovers.
The Bulldogs were only able to score four points off Wisconsin mistakes.
Drake was able to improve on one aspect where it showed weakness against Creighton, the foul line, shooting 75 percent.
The Bulldogs showed that they still need to improve on rebounding, as they gave up 17 offensive rebounds.
The Bulldogs have scheduled a tough nonconference schedule and hope to use this to prepare for conference play.
Drake heads to Colorado State this Saturday to face the Rams at 1 p.m.
