Michigan State University
Wisconsin
No. 20 Spartans Blow By Badgers, 72-47
2/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb 5, 2004
EAST LANSING, Mich.(AP) - Kelli Roehrig gave up three inches in height and not much else in scoring 19 points and helping Michigan State grab 24 offensive rebounds on Thursday.
That strength inside and much better defense helped the 20th-ranked Spartans dominate Wisconsin 72-47 and win their seventh game in the last eight tries.
Victoria Lucas-Perry had 11 points off the bench and Lindsay Bowen and Patrice McKinney each had 10 for Michigan State (17-4, 7-3 Big Ten). Liz Shimek led the rebounders with nine.
"The big thing was getting 24 offensive rebounds," Spartans coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "And I really liked the play of our bench. It's the time of year to play a lot of different people."
Ashley Josephson had 17 points and Emily Ashbaugh had 10 for the Badgers (8-12, 2-8), the 10th team to score less than 50 points against Michigan State this season.
The Spartans' matchup zone held Wisconsin to .333 accuracy from the field and .174 3-point shooting. Michigan State was upset Sunday by Iowa, 78-67.
"You don't have to lose to learn," McCallie said. "But we did lose. And I think we all thought about it. We realized it's important to enjoy ourselves. And we all had fun tonight and brought something to the table."
Michigan State shot .450 from the field, .467 from 3-point range, and had a 42-32 advantage in rebounds, plus edges in every ball handling statistic.
"It was nice to get a career high in points but more important to crash the boards and get putbacks," McKinney said. "Coach loves putbacks. And my main focus was to rebound and let other players feed off that."
The Spartans did that early and turned an 11-11 game into a 33-20 halftime advantage. The second half was more of the same as the Badgers never got closer than 12 points.
"We faced a very, very talented basketball team this evening," Wisconsin coach Lisa Stone said. "They're very blue-collar. And Kelli Roehrig had her way with us inside."
 Kristin Haynie puts up a fast-break layup between Wisconsin's Kjersten Bakke and Stephanie Rich during the second half.  | |
"All Bowen wants is assists," Roehrig joked about the Spartans' season scoring leader. "But we worked the ball around a lot more. We knew they had players 6-7 and 6-5. But it's all about positioning."
The win gave Michigan State three straight seasons with 17 or more wins for the first time in school history.
"We wanted to hold them under 45 points and just missed it," Bowen said. "But our goal going in was to keep them under 56. And when we meet our defensive goal, we're tough to beat."
