Michigan State women’s basketball ran away with the lead late against Wisconsin on the road Wednesday night to take the game 88-63.
The game was tied at the half, but MSU outscored the Badgers 52-27 in the second half behind spectacular nights from graduate student guard Kamaria McDaniel and senior forward Taiyier Parks. A win was desperately needed for the green and white after a brutal three-game losing skid.
It was an extremely slow start for the Spartans on Wednesday night, who again were coached by Dean Lockwood while Suzy Merchant recovers from her medical incident. The beginning of the game was full of turnovers and missed shots, but McDaniel was a bright spot in the Spartans less than spectacular first quarter, sinking the two 3-pointers she shot from the perimeter.
With one minute left in the first quarter, freshman guard Theryn Hallock helped breathe a little life into the flat ten minutes.
Senior guard Moira Joiner, who lead the team on Sunday against Michigan, got her first points two minutes into the second quarter with a layup in the paint.
Halfway through quarter two, Parks drove to the net to make a layup and draw a foul to bring the Spartans on a 7-0 scoring run and within one point, but it was yet another 3-pointer from McDaniel that put the Spartans back on top.
A beautiful reverse layup from Joiner was the cherry on top of a nice second quarter of scoring for the Spartans, but a 3-pointer from Wisconsin senior guard Julie Pospisilova tied the game at 36 before both teams made their way to the locker rooms for halftime.
Sophomore guard DeeDee Hagemann started off the second half with a bang, sinking a 3-pointer, getting a steal, and hitting the layup in transition to get the ball rolling for the Spartans.
It was layup after layup on both sides of the floor in the third quarter keeping the game at a tied gridlock.
With three minutes left in the quarter, senior guard/forward Tory Ozment stripped Wisconsin of the ball and made her way down the floor all by herself to make an easy layup for the Spartans.
The Spartans found their rhythm in the third quarter, never looked back and were able to move into the fourth leading 58-54.
