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Wisconsin Badgers WBB Bests Gophers For Fourth Straight Time in Border Battle Victory

The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team logged its fourth straight win in the Border Battle rivalry on Tuesday.

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Wisconsin Badgers women's basketball
Feb 1, 2024; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes guard Taylor Thierry (2) and forward Cotie McMahon (32) go for a rebound between Wisconsin Badgers forward Serah Williams (25) and guard Brooke Schramek (3) during the first half of the NCAA women’s basketball game at Value City Arena.

MINNEAPOLIS – The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers for the fourth straight time with a wire-to-wire victory on Tuesday night at Williams Arena. Serah Williams delivered another standout two-way performance and Sania Copeland busted out of her shooting slump to lead UW to their sixth Big Ten win.

Here is the full recap:

Wisconsin Badgers WBB Downs Minnesota 67-56 on the Road

Final Score

Wisconsin Badgers (13-12 overall, 6-9 Big Ten): 67
Minnesota Golden Gophers (15-11 overall, 5-10 Big Ten): 56

Four Factors

eFG%: 46.2
Turnover%: 22.2
Off. Rebound%: 44.4
FTA/FGA: 49.1

Key Stats

FG%: 41.5 (22-of-53)
Opp. FG%: 40.8 (20-of-49)
3P%: 26.3 (5-of-19)
Opp. 3P%: 30.8 (4-of-13)
FT%: 69.2 (18-of-26)
Opp. FT%: 63.2 (12-of-19)
Points Per Possession: 1.063
Opponent Points Per Possession: 0.875
Rebounds: 39 (16 offensive)
Opponent Rebounds: 32 (12 offensive)
Turnovers: 14
Forced Turnovers: 17


Team Leaders

  • Sania Copeland: 12 points (4-of-7 FG, 3-of-6 3P), three rebounds, one assist, two steals, +6
  • Serah Williams: 30 points (11-of-14 FG, 1-of-1 3P), 15 rebounds (eight offensive), one assist, two blocks, one steal, +20
  • D’Yanis Jimenez: 10 points (3-of-10 FG, 0-of-2 3P), four rebounds, one block, two steals, +6
  • Natalie Leuzinger: eight points (1-of-6 FG, 1-of-5 3P), three rebounds (two offensive), two assists, +11

Minnesota Team Leaders

  • Amaya Battle: 16 points (7-of-17 FG), three rebounds (one offensive), five assists, one block, +2
  • Janay Sanders: 11 points (3-of-4 FG), one rebound, two assists, one steal, -17

Three-ish Thoughts on the Badgers Victory Over Minnesota

1. With 3:51 left in the first quarter and the Badgers holding onto a one-point lead, Ronnie Porter picked up her second foul and was subbed out by Marisa Moseley. D’Yanis Jimenez who, by trade, is not a point guard was subbed in. Under 30 seconds later, the Badgers ran a play that got the electric Jimenez moving downhill at speed and she scored her first two points of the game. She scored again under a minute later and then recorded a steal on the following Minnesota possession. Jimenez stayed in the game to start the second quarter and picked another Gopher’s pocket before being subbed out for Porter with Wisconsin holding a three-point lead.


Losing their floor general early in a closely contested rivalry game could’ve spelled disaster for UW, but thanks to Jimenez their lead actually grew while Porter was on the bench. The freshman guard returned to the game later in the second quarter and made four free throws, due to her aggressive attacking of the basket, right before halftime to give the Badgers a 15-point lead at intermission.

Jimenez still makes freshmen mistakes on both ends of the court but her offensive talent is undeniable and she will surely be an important part of UW’s team this year and moving forward into the future. Her 19 minutes of playing time on Tuesday night were invaluable to Wisconsin’s victory and hopefully her performance gave her confidence for the stretch run of the season.

2. Looking at the final box score you might not be able to tell this, but Minnesota was playing really good post defense on Serah Williams at the beginning of the game. Usual starting post Sophie Hart was out with an injury so the Gophers gave freshman AJ Johnson her first career start in this one.

In the first quarter, Johnson and Nia Holloway combined to play some physical defense on Williams that prevented her from even getting the ball on many possessions. Williams only attempted two shots in the first quarter (while playing nine of 10 minutes) and one of them was a three, which she made, and they also kept her off the glass to the tune of one defensive rebound. Johnson, on the other hand, had six points and three boards in the first quarter.


What you probably COULD have told from looking at the final box score is that Williams made some adjustments after the first quarter and ended up with a casual 30 point/15 rebound double-double with two blocks, a steal, and an assist thrown in for good measure. She is a true talent and an absolute joy to watch play basketball.

3. The Badgers ended both the first and second quarters on runs that helped them build their lead. With 3:37 left in the first quarter the score was tied 5-5 but Wisconsin outscored Minnesota 10-7 over those final minutes to take a three-point lead into the second quarter.

With 3:47 left in the second quarter the Badgers were up seven but then ended the half on a 13-5 streak which gave them a 15-point advantage and enough wiggle room to handle a big Minnesota second half spurt without giving up the lead.

Wisconsin had been having some big third quarters in recent games, but this time it was right before halftime when they put the pedal to the metal. As noted, this was important because Minnesota scored 10 points in 94 seconds to end the third quarter and got things as close as six in the fourth quarter when UW went cold from the field. The Badgers were scoreless for nearly five minutes in the fourth quarter and for four minutes in the third quarter (both times missing seven consecutive field goal attempts), but stout defense didn’t let the Gophers get too close.

4. Speaking of stout defense, Sania Copelad is so fun to watch on the defensive end. She is smart, quick, and always a half-second away from picking her assignment’s pocket. Copeland is the rare player that is an excellent team defender AND individual defender. That side of the court has been stellar for her all season, but she has struggled a bit on offense this year.


Because of that, it was great to see her hit some shots against the Gophers. She ended up shooting 3-of-6 from deep on the night and you could just see the confidence exuding out of her after making the first one. Sometimes all a shooter needs to see is one go down and then they’re instantly on a hot streak.

5. RANDOM QUICK THOUGHTS: AJ Johnson is gonna be a solid player for Minnesota; I thought that Moseley had some really nice play calls coming out of timeouts and when the offense needed to be reset; Ronnie Porter didn’t shoot the ball well, but was the prototypical point guard otherwise via great passing and defense; awesome work on the offensive glass as a team for Wisconsin; UW had three fewer turnovers than UM; UW’s aggression to the basket resulted in them earning seven more free throw attempts (and six more makes) than the Gophers; injuries to Mara Braun and Sophie Hart really killed Minnesota’s early-season momentum

Final Thought

If you’ll travel back in time with me to the distant past of, uh, two and half weeks ago, you’ll see a Wisconsin Badgers team leaving the court in Evanston, Illinois after being dismantled by a bad Northwestern Wildcats team. They had a week off before their next game and certain writers who needed to find some content with which to feed the content machine decided to compile lists of the Five Worst Losses and Five Best Wins of the Marisa Moseley era.

Well, since that loss to Northwestern, Wisconsin has:

  • Beaten Penn State at home (Her Hoops Stats predicted win percentage of 12.9%)
  • Lost, respectably, to Indiana at home
  • Pummeled Rutgers on the road by 18 points (39.8% HHS predicted win)
  • Blasted Minnesota on the road by 11 points (11.5% HHS predicted win)
  • Moved from 170th overall in HHS to 146th
  • Won back-to-back road games for the first time since the 2010-2011 season
  • Tied their best conference wins (six with a minimum of four games to go) mark since 2010-2011
  • Won the most games (13 with a minimum of four games to go) in a season since 2018-2019 when they won 15

The Badgers have three regular season games remaining, two of which come at home, and then at least one Big Ten Tournament game. The current standings show Wisconsin in tenth place which means they’d get a first round bye in the BTT for the second straight season! While it certainly hasn’t been an instant turnaround, Marisa Moseley is building something in Madison and the results are starting to show up in the standings.


Lastly: LMAOOOOOO EAT IT GOPHERS!!! THAT’S FOUR STRAIGHT TIMES YOU’VE LOST TO THE BADGERS!!!! GET WRECKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next Game: Sunday, Feb. 25; vs. Purdue Boilermakers; 3:00 p.m. CT; BTN; Kohl Center

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Drew Hamm is a seasoned sports journalist with an extensive background in covering the Wisconsin Badgers. He has previously held positions as the site manager at Bucky's 5th Quarter and founder of Badgers Ball Knower. Currently, he contributes as a staff writer for BadgerNotes.com.

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