Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Basketball Defeats St. Thomas 78-55 on the Road

Here is the full recap:

Final Score

Wisconsin Badgers (6-4 overall, 0-1 Big Ten): 78

St. Thomas Tommies (5-6 overall, 0-0 Summit): 55

Four Factors

eFG%: 52.6

Turnover%: 19.8

Off. Rebound%: 48.5

FTA/FGA: 39.7

Key Stats

FG%: 46.6 (27-of-58)
Opp. FG%: 37.7 (20-of-53)
3P%: 43.8 (7-of-16)
Opp. 3P%: 34.8 (8-of-23)
FT%: 73.9 (17-of-23)
Opp. FT%: 77.8 (7-of-9)
Points Per Possession: 1.147
Opponent Points Per Possession: 0.809
Rebounds: 40 (16 offensive)
Opponent Rebounds: 27 (10 offensive)
Turnovers: 17
Forced Turnovers: 22

Roll Badgers🦡 pic.twitter.com/eAWymxJ24z

— Wisconsin Women’s Basketball (@BadgerWBB) December 14, 2023

Team Leaders

• Serah Williams: 21 points (6-of-12 FG), 14 rebounds (nine offensive), three assists, three blocks, no plus/minus stats were recorded, but assume these were good for UW
• Brooke Schramek: 15 points (6-of-9 FG, 3-of-4 3P), four rebounds (one offensive), two assists, one block, two steals
• Ronnie Porter: five points (2-of-8 FG), six rebounds (one offensive), five assists, four steals
• D’Yanis Jimenez: career-high 20 points (7-of-13 FG, 1-of-3 3P), one rebound (one offensive), one assist, one block, three steals

St. Thomas Team Leaders

• Amber Scalia: 13 points (4-of-9 FG, 3-of-5 3P), two rebounds (one offensive), three assists
• Jo Langbehn: 14 points (7-of-10 FG), four rebounds (one offensive)

Three Thoughts on the Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Basketball Win Over St. Thomas

1. Serah Williams picked up her third double-double (before the fourth quarter even started) of the season, pouring in a game-high 21 points and hauling in a game-high 14 boards. She is very clearly the straw that stirs the drink on offense for UW and her big game put this one out of reach early in the second half.

This wasn’t Williams’ most efficient game shooting the ball, as she missed three layups and her only shot attempts at all were from inside the restricted area below the hoop, but I was heartened by her 90% shooting from the free throw line on 10 attempts. While I am always an advocate of Williams stepping out and at least attempting a three, that wasn’t really necessary against the Tommies, who were overmatched in the paint from the tip.

Speaking of being overmatched in the paint, Williams had three blocks (just above her season average of 2.9) on the night and was a deterrent on multiple other Tommie drives towards the basket. She is ninth in the country in blocks per game and 11th in block rate so far this year. As she learns to be better about fouling she’ll become a black hole on defense, just swallowing up any opponent’s attempt at the rim.

2. D’Yanis Jimenez is so quick driving to the basket. There was no one on St. Thomas that could stay in front of her when she decided it was time to get to the tin and it resulted in her setting a new career-high with 20 points. The funny thing is that the total could’ve been considerably higher.

Jimenez, like many of the Badgers, missed her fair share of layups. The shot chart shows that she only missed one of four layups, but it classifies “driving layups” as a different shot attempt and she missed three of those. Her problem isn’t getting there, as she does that with ease, but she needs to work on completing the play. To be fair, she is still a freshman and young players have the occasional lapse in concentration.

Badgers miss a layup, steal the ball in transition, miss another layup. Both were uncontested. This is becoming a Problem.

— Basketball Fan of maybe the Sixers (@drewhamm5) December 14, 2023

On defense, Jimenez is still very much a work in progress, but her offensive ceiling is already at All-Big Ten levels. She can fill it up with the best of them and will undoubtedly carry UW’s offense in games this season when Williams has an off night.

3. Speaking of which, Wisconsin’s defense continues to have good looking stats, but I’m still not convinced they are even an above average unit. St. Thomas had a higher points per shot attempt and eFG% than both Arkansas and Butler (games Wisconsin lost) and their three-point rate was the third highest of the season. A better team would’ve scored considerably more points given the same shot attempts and I think UW has been skating by on defense due to multiple teams suffering “off” shooting nights against them.

However, on the positive side, the Badgers forced a ton of turnovers and also limited the Tommies on the offensive glass and in second chance scoring opportunities. I think Wisconsin has some individual defenders that are good, but as a team I’m not sure they’re in the top-ten of the Big Ten. My spot in the press box on Wednesday night was right above the Wisconsin bench and I had a great view of the multiple times during the game where Marisa Moseley was upset with missed/late rotations by her team.

Halle Douglass will help the team defense as she gets back up to game-speed and can take on more minutes. I’d also say that Leena Patibandla could be thrown in there for a few minutes every game as a Defensive Nuisance. She’s long, quick, and smart. She’ll cause problems for opposing guards.

Leena has the chance to be really special for women’s basketball.

— Badger WBB HQ (@BadgerWBBHQ) December 14, 2023

4. RAPID FIRE BONUS THOUGHTS: I’ve mentioned it before, but I love Patibandla’s game and I hope she continues to earn playing time; Ronnie Porter didn’t have a good shooting game, but she’s so smart when dictating the pace of UW’s fast break and that led to a number of baskets for her teammates; Brooke Schramek’s impact on this team sometimes get lost in the shuffle (at least for me) but she is as steady as a metronome and had a great shooting game on Wednesday; St. Thomas’ Amber Scalia (younger sister of IU’s Sara Scalia) has a sweet shot and it wouldn’t be shocking for high major teams to be sniffing around the sophomore for a transfer

Final Thought

Coming into this one on a two-game losing streak, featuring one game they should’ve won, this was absolutely a “must win” for Wisconsin and, well, they did exactly that. This was as impressive an offensive performance as the Wisconsin Badgers have had this season which was great to see against a team that they should do that against. The past two years the Badgers beat the Tommies (who have only been a D-1 team for these three years) by 16 and eight points respectively. Steamrolling them by 23 points this year is a marked improvement for Moseley’s squad.

It’s little things like that which show me this team is improving on the margins and it is being reflected in their win/loss record. I think a lot of Badgers fans (me included) were worried about what this team was going to look like this season. There was no proven point guard on the roster, arguably their best returning offensive player (Maty Wilke) transferred out, Julie Pospisilova graduated…but this team has shown that they’re built differently than we thought.

Williams and Porter have taken big jumps as sophomores and freshmen like Jimenez have stepped into the rotation right away to offset the offensive losses that UW suffered. Schramek, Douglass, and Natalie Leuzinger have provided veteran leadership that can’t be understated. They have bridged the gap between Jonathan Tsipis’ time in Madison and Moseley’s tenure and have done so well.

You are looking live at Wisconsin vs. St. Thomas in what is basically a home game for just Ronnie Porter. #Badgers pic.twitter.com/XLabKMKa7C

— Basketball Fan of maybe the Sixers (@drewhamm5) December 14, 2023

I don’t know what Wisconsin’s record will look like at the end of the season, but right now I’d consider the first third of this season as an unqualified success. I know that a lot of the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball fans in attendance on Wednesday night were family of UW players, but there were also fans who were just there to support their team and I know that hasn’t always happened in the past few years.

Next Game: Thursday, Dec. 21; vs. Eastern Illinois Panthers; 6:30 p.m. CT; B1G+; Kohl Center

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