Wisconsin struggles on both ends of the floor, falls to Minnesota
· Yahoo Sports
MADISON – Minnesota is one of the best defensive teams in the Big Ten. It showed Sunday, Feb. 15 at the Kohl Center.
After a strong start by the Wisconsin women’s basketball team, the Gophers shut down their border rival and scored an 83-60 victory to sweep the season series,
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The Badgers, who entered play ranked 15th in the Big Ten in field goal percentage, shot 43.4% (23 of 53) but struggled from 3-point range (4 for 19) and turned the ball over 21 times. Minnesota scored 26 points off those turnovers.
Add it up and you had Wisconsin’s worst home loss of the season.
The defeat was the sixth straight for UW (13-13, 5-10 Big Ten). Next the team plays at USC Feb. 19 then at No. 2 UCLA on Feb. 22.
After that the Badgers close the regular season versus No. 12 Iowa at home March 1.
Junior guard Kyrah Daniels led UW with 18 points on 7-for14 shooting. Senior forward Gift Uchenna added 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds but also led the Badgers with six turnovers.
Redshirt junior guard Mara Braun led Minnesota with 20 points. Senior guard Amaya battle added 17 points. Junior guard Grace Grocholski, a graduate of Kettle Moraine High School who entered play averaging a team-high 13.7 points per game, finished with seven.
The game began to slip away for Wisconsin during the final 3 minutes of the first half when the Gophers outscored it, 10-2, to take a nine-point lead.
Five of those points came during the final 36 seconds when graduate center Sophie Hart scored inside and Grocholski hit a 3 just before the buzzer to give her team a 40-31 edge.
Wisconsin trimmed the deficit to seven points three times during the first 3 minutes of the second half, but never got a handle on slowing down Minnesota.
The Gophers hit four of their first five shots of the second half and made seven of 10 shots in the third quarter. They 64% (16 for 25) in the second half.
Check jsonline later for more on the game.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin women's basketball falls to Minnesota for 6th straight loss