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Wisconsin Badgers WBB Roars Back From Huge Halftime Deficit to Upset Penn State

The Wisconsin Badgers WBB program overcame a big halftime deficit to topple Penn State on Sunday.

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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.

The Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team needed a win on Sunday and, despite falling behind by as many as 17 points, they got one. Serah Williams was dominant against Penn State and a third quarter to remember sparked UW to a huge victory over the Nittany Lions. Here is the full recap:

Wisconsin Badgers WBB Defeats Penn State in Comeback Fashion

Final Score

Wisconsin Badgers (11-11 overall, 4-8 Big Ten): 69
Penn State Nittany Lions (16-8 overall, 7-6 Big Ten): 64

Four Factors

eFG%: 58.0
Turnover%: 28.6
Off. Rebound%: 29.0
FTA/FGA: 33.9

Key Stats

FG%: 44.6 (25-of-56)
Opp. FG%: 38.3 (23-of-60)
3P%: 33.3 (5-of-15)
Opp. 3P%: 28.6 (8-of-28)
FT%: 73.7 (14-of-19)
Opp. FT%: 55.6 (10-of-18)
Points Per Possession: 0.896
Opponent Points Per Possession: 0.842
Rebounds: 38 (nine offensive)
Opponent Rebounds: 33 (11 offensive)
Turnovers: 22
Forced Turnovers: 21 


Team Leaders

  • Ronnie Porter: eight points (3-of-13 FG, 0-of-2 3P), two rebounds (one offensive), five assists, one block, five steals, -1
  • Serah Williams: 31 points (11-of-15 FG, 1-of-1 3P), 15 rebounds (two offensive), one assist, three blocks, four steals, +5
  • Halle Douglass: eight points (3-of-3 FG, 2-of-2 3P), six rebounds (one offensive), one block, +11
  • Natalie Leuzinger: seven points (3-of-6 FG, 1-of-2 3P), two rebounds, three assists, +8

Penn State Team Leaders

  • Ashley Owusu: 24 points (11-of-21 FG, 1-of-4 3P), five rebounds (one offensive), five assists, three steals, one blocks, +4
  • Leilani Kapinus: 11 points (4-of-9 FG, 0-of-3 3P), nine rebounds (two offensive), two assists, two steals, two blocks, -1

Three-ish Thoughts on the Wisconsin WBB Win Over Penn State

1. Serah Williams! I really don’t know what else to say about her at this point. She has nine straight double-doubles (a program record) and is getting better as this season goes on. On Sunday afternoon, she poured in 31 points and hauled in 15 rebounds (both tying career highs) while blocking three shots and recording four steals. It was a dominant performance on both ends of the court and she is making a legitimate case to make All-B1G First Team. 


I know that Penn State has had some trouble guarding post players (Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke dropped 47 on their heads in the game before this one) but Williams took advantage of their inability to stick her and made PSU pay all day. She also made sure to save her best for last, scoring a dozen points in the fourth quarter, with 10 of those coming in the final three minutes as UW closed out the win. She ALSO had six rebounds, one block, and two steals in the final frame, all of which helped the Badgers eke out the five-point victory. 


2. The Badgers had trouble with the press in the first half and turned the ball over 13 times, with point guard Ronnie Porter struggling to advance the ball quickly against PSU’s aggressive defense. However, things got better in the second half with Williams getting a couple of wide open layups thanks to the halftime adjustments.

While Wisconsin was dinged with a 10-seconds turnover near the beginning of the third quarter, they tightened up after that and went on a huge run to erase Penn State’s large halftime lead. As mentioned, the Badgers moved the ball a bit more quickly/decisively and found Williams all alone under the basket a couple of times for easy layups.

UW definitely still turned the ball over too much (22 times) but they forced 21 Penn State turnovers and they also only scored one fewer point (20 to 19) than the Nittany Lions did off of the turnovers.

3. Speaking of Wisconsin’s defense…it was extremely good in the second half! Starting with under two minutes to go in the second quarter until 4:32 to go in the third quarter, the Badgers forced PSU to miss 12 straight shots. There was also a stretch after that where PSU missed seven straight shots over five minutes at the end of the third quarter into the beginning of fourth.

PSU wasn’t setting the nets on fire in the first half, but they did shoot 45.5% from the field and 33.3% from deep which helped them out to a big halftime lead. In the second half, Wisconsin put the clamps on PSU and held them to 29.6%/20.0% respectively which allowed them to claw back into the game.

The Wisconsin Badgers had been having some awful third quarters lately, but Sunday’s showing was basically perfect and most of that was thanks to the defense. PSU only made two shots (neither of which were assisted) and scored seven points while committing six turnovers. Although the offense (UW shot 73.3% (11-of-15) from the field) was brilliant too. It was quite possibly the best quarter they’ve played all season. Beautiful basketball.

4. Sania Copeland and Ronnie Porter were both ACTIVE on the perimeter on defense. Copeland had four steals and Porter ended up with five and both of them played solid defense on PSU’s guards.

All Shay Ciezki does is launch from three and she crushed Wisconsin the first half to the tune of 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting from deep. In the second half however? It was a completely different story. Despite playing all 20 minutes, Ciezki only attempted three shots (all three-pointers) and only made one. She was completely neutralized for the final two quarters and a large part of that is due to Wisconsin’s defense.

All-conference super senior Makenna Marisa is one of PSU’s best players and, while she has been banged up a bit recently, one of their best scorers. On Sunday she only scored four points and all of those came in the fourth quarter. She was a ghost for the first 30 minutes of the game.

Copeland and Porter have been struggling to score the ball, but their defensive contributions haven’t wavered basically all season.

5. I thought this was the perfect Halle Douglass game/contribution. Since returning from her ACL injury earlier this year she hasn’t quite been the same player as before, but Sunday’s showing was the pinnacle of what she can do for this team. Playing 20 minutes off the bench, grabbing a bunch of rebounds, and hitting a couple of big three-pointers in the second half? Yeah, that’s exactly what this Badgers team needs. 


As one of the few veterans on the team, Douglass’ voice is certainly important in the locker room, but her on-court production is equally as important as a top option off the bench. Kudos to her for embracing her new role and excelling at it.

Final Thought

After the previous week’s back-to-back disasters against Northwestern and Ohio State, the Badgers had an entire week off to lick their wounds and prepare for Penn State. Falling behind by 13 points at the end of the first quarter was not the ideal way to bounce back, but the Badgers didn’t fold. They clearly did some soul searching during their week off and decided that the losses to NU and OSU weren’t going to define them and this season…and then they played some of the best basketball they’ve played under Marisa Moseley.

The second quarter was much better but Wisconsin was still down by 14 at halftime and you wouldn’t have been out of line to turn the game off and focus on your Super Bowl cooking. However, if you stuck around you saw a dominant display of hoops unlike any Wisconsin usually shows. I’m still in awe of UW’s third quarter against Penn State to be honest.

They roared out of halftime and kicked PSU’s ass up and down the court to the tune of 24-7 led by Serah Williams and Halle Douglass on offense and Ronnie Porter and Sania Copeland on defense. This was the second this season where the Badgers had a week off after an embarrassing losing streak and came out with a fire in their bellies. A month ago UW went to Iowa and lost by 46 points but then returned home and beat Minnesota and Rutgers in consecutive games. 


Now, repeating that series of events will be considerably more difficult this time around as the 14th-ranked Hoosiers and Mackenzie Holmes come to Madison on Valentine’s Day…but what if? The Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Basketball Rollercoaster Ride continues on!

Next Game: Wednesday, Feb. 14; vs. No. 14 Indiana Hoosiers; 7:00 p.m. CT; Peacock; 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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