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MADISON – The Wisconsin women’s basketball team is down but not done.
The Badgers’ 81-52 lost to No. 9 Iowa Sunday March 1 in front of a season-high crowd of 8,520 at the Kohl Center was their ninth straight defeat to finish the regular season.
UW, however, isn’t done with the Big Ten. It grabbed the 15th and final spot for the conference tournament, which will be played March 4-11 at Cambridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. As of late Sunday afternoon, the Badgers' opponent had not been determined, but they will play Wednesday.
Whoever the opponent, Wisconsin will have to regroup after getting outscored by 25 points in the second half.
Senior guard Destiny Howell finished with 23 points on 8-for-16 shooting. Next in line was junior guard Kyrah Daniels, who finished with eight points and a team-high eight rebounds but made just two of 17 attempts.
Iowa played without senior forward Hannah Stuelke, its second-leading scorer and top rebounder, but didn’t seem to miss her. The Hawkeyes shot 53% overall, 45% (9 for 20) from 3-point range and scored 38 points in the paint.
Sophomore center Ava Heiden finished with 16 points on 8-for-11 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds. Sophomore guard Chazadi Wright added 14 points. Verona native Taylor Stremlow, another sophomore guard, added 12 points, nine assists and five rebounds.
On the other end of the floor Iowa held UW its worst shooting day of Big Ten play and second-worst for the season.
Iowa's tenacity on that end of the floor stood out to Daniels.
“I think they do a really good job with their assignments,” she said. “Blowing up screens, making it difficult to cut, all those things, just disrupt. They do a really good job. Super physical.”
Before the game UW recognized its Howell, Ronnie Porter, Lily Krahn, Gift Uchenna and Leena Patibandla on Senior Day. Patibandla, a junior, will graduate this year.
Here are four takeaways from the loss
Hawkeyes make UW pay with 3-point shooting
Iowa ranks 17th in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage, but what made the Hawkeyes’ success beyond the arc especially hurt Sunday was how they used it to make UW pay for its mistakes.
When Iowa went on an 11-0 run to open the second half, it got three 3s. Two of those came after Badger turnovers and another one came after an offensive rebound. Iowa’s fourth 3 of the quarter also came after a UW turnover.
The plays were part of an 18-4 run that turned a 33-29 halftime lead into a 51-33 advantage with 4 ½ minutes left in the quarter.
Wisconsin committed just 12 turnovers, but it couldn’t protect the ball during a critical phase of the game.
“I thought the first 3 minutes of that second half was critical,” Wisconsin coach Robin Pingeton said. "They went on a (11)-0 run. We had a couple turnovers, didn't get out to their shooters, which we knew were more than capable of shooting that three ball, and just missed some assignments.
“They got a little momentum and they never looked back.”
Destiny Howell closes Big Ten play on a high note
Howell finished conference play with her fourth 20-point game of the Big Ten season. She finished Big Ten play with a scoring average of 15 points per game and shot 38% (41 for 108) from 3-point range.
Sunday she hit four of her first six shots and scored nine points after one quarter. She cooled off in the second quarter, going 1 for 5, but still managed to score because of her ability to draw fouls. She drew four whistles in the quarter and went 5 for 6 from the line to finish the half with 17 points.
The game marked her most efficient performance since a 28-point night in an overtime loss to Washington Feb. 8.
"I feel like my teammates were doing a really good job screening for me, trying to get me in the ball, trying to get me open, trying to put me in positions to not even just score, but make the right play for the team,” Howell said. “I was able to hit a few today, so I definitely think that was a good way to go out of the Kohl Center. I really had a great time here.”
Badger posts struggle against Iowa’s size
The Hawkeyes start Heiden, who is 6-4, and brought 6-5 Layla Hays off the bench.
The duo made the game difficult for 6-3 freshman Dorja Zaja, who averaged a team-high 13 points during the Badgers' previous four games. Sunday she was 0 for 5 shooting with three turnovers.
“She’s going to be a big part of what we do moving forward,” Pingeton said. “Her last handful of games, she's played extremely well. Tonight was a little bit tougher for her playing against some of the best posts in the country.
“We're excited about her. We think she's got it really high upside. We've just got to continue to help her stand up her own way.”
Gift Uchenna, a 6-3 senior, fared a little better, but after getting two buckets during the first quarter didn’t score again.
Freshman point guard earns minutes increase
Nikki Kerstein didn’t play in eight of the Badgers’ Big Ten games, but it’s worth noting that she saw almost 9 minutes at UCLA and got 7 ½ minutes Sunday.
Those two games represent the most she has played in Big Ten play. Against Iowa she hit a three-quarters court shot to finish the first quarter and for the second straight game didn’t have a turnover.
“She plays with different gears,” Pingeton said. “I think she's gotten a lot more comfortable understanding the pace, has been a lot more aggressive in practices the last probably month and change ,and so I like how she's really continued to lean in.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin women's basketball falls to Iowa in regular season finale