Wisconsin ousts Miami from WBIT with a hot-shooting second half
The best teams often pull away in the third quarter.
And unfortunately for Hurricanes fans, that happened to be Wisconsin.
Despite a valiant fourth-quarter effort by Miami, the third-seeded Wisconsin Badgers (15-17) upset the second-seeded Hurricanes (18-15) 72-65 on Sunday afternoon in the second round of the WBIT at Watsco Center. The Badgers, who hit all seven of their three-pointers in the third, will advance to play the winner of Eastern Kentucky and Harvard.
“We get them up a lot in practice,” the Badgers’ Destiny Howell said of her team’s three-point barrage. The senior guard led all scorers with 23, nine of which came in the third quarter. “Just trusting our shot and trusting each other. Hitting one more pass and making sure that there are a lot of rhythm threes for us.”
After a slow first half, Wisconsin picked up in the third quarter, making 71% of its shots. In total, the Badgers shot 65% from the field in the second half, including a mesmerizing 10-for-11 from behind the arc.
“We probably settled in a bit,” Badgers coach Robin Pingeton said. “I thought our ball movement was a little bit better. Like they alluded to, I thought we did a good job of just making one more pass and getting some rhythm looks versus trying to force things to happen.”
Buckets were difficult to come by in the first half for both sides. The Canes hit only five shots, scoring at a rather disappointing 17% clip. Wisconsin, meanwhile, wasn’t much better as the Badgers scored 23 points, going 29% from the field.
UM’s defense could be credited with the Badgers’ inefficiency as they forced Wisconsin into 10 turnovers, a middling 25% from three (3-12) and kept them from the free throw line.
“We had some really unforced turnovers in that first half that, thankfully for us, were dead ball turnovers, not live ball turnovers because Miami does such a great job of transitioning off those miscues,” Pingeton said.
The issue: the Canes also committed 10 turnovers and was often held scoreless for several stretches.
“I thought their zone stifled us a little bit,” Hurricanes coach Tricia Cullop said. “I was disappointed because I thought we missed a lot of really easy shots in the first half.”
Everything changed in the third quarter. The Canes scored 22 points — more than they had the entire first half. Wisconsin, meanwhile, hit an impressive nine three-pointers in a row, a streak that even extended into the fourth.
The Canes gave a valiant effort in the final quarter, even cutting the Badgers’ lead to as little as two as they forced seven turnovers and scored 14 points off the giveaways. Canes guard Gal Raviv, who finished with 20 points on 32% shooting, scored 10 in the fourth period and nearly saved the day.
“I was really proud of her, especially because she played a lot of minutes today, and you have to dig deep sometimes to find that kind of confidence in yourself when it’s not happening,” Cullop said of Raviv who led her team in scoring. “I thought she made great plays to get us back in the game.”
With the Canes’ season now at its end, Cullop felt for players such as Ra Shaya Kyle, a senior who averaged a double-double yet finished with 12 boards and just nine points on 18% shooting and four missed free throws. Her focus, however, then shifted to next year.
“We’re going to work hard with these players to keep improving,” Cullop said. “I know there are a lot of things they want to do better too. We just got to take this break in the offseason to retool.”
