Purdue women's basketball notched their second conference road victory of the season on Sunday afternoon, defeating Wisconsin 79-55 in Madison. A strong second half saw the Boilermakers break away from the previously surging Badgers, who had won three of their last four games.
The Boilermakers snapped a two-game skid with the victory, moving to 12-15 overall and 5-11 in Big Ten play while Wisconsin dropped to 13-13 and 6-10 in conference play. The win also improved Purdue's winning streak against Wisconsin to four over the last two seasons.
It was an explosive back and forth affair in the early going at the Kohl Center as both Purdue and Wisconsin shot north of 60% from the field in the first quarter and exchanged the lead seven times.
Mary Ashley Stevenson got it going early, scoring ten points in the opening frame on a perfect 5-5 clip. Abbey Ellis wasn't far behind the freshman standout, shooting 3-4 from the field for six points. The pair feasted for the Boilermakers, who made 69% of their field goals in the first quarter.
Wisconsin was also firing on all cylinders offensively in the first quarter, shooting 64% from the field and 3-5 from three-point range. The trio of Ronnie Porter, Natalie Leuzinger and Serah Williams scored 18 of the Badgers' 21 points in the opening quarter.
After falling behind 17-15 with less than two minutes to play, Purdue went on a 6-2 run to regain the lead before Wisconsin tied things back up at 21-21 in the final moments of the quarter.
The scoring output dipped in the second quarter as the Boilermakers shot just 33% from the field while the Badgers clip fell to 28% from the field. Only two Wisconsin players scored in the quarter, Leuzinger and Brooke Schramek, both scoring five points.
A Caitlyn Harper layup made it a seven point game with 1:06 to play in the first half before Wisconsin closed the second quarter on a brief 4-0 run to close in on the Boilermakers' lead heading into the break.
Katie Gearlds and the Boilermakers came out of halftime supercharged for what turned out to be a big third quarter in Madison. After Serah Williams opened up the scoring in the second half, the Boilermakers went on an 11-2 run in just over three minutes. Wisconsin snapped the run at the 4:59 mark with a layup before Sophie Swanson knocked down her first three of the game to extend the Boilermakers' lead to ten.
Purdue put together another surge in the latter half of the quarter by way of the charity stripe, scoring six of nine points during the run from the free throw line. That spurt gave the Boilermakers their largest lead of the day to that point, 57-41, before the Badgers hit a three in the final seconds.
That success continued throughout the fourth quarter as Purdue put together yet another run on the heels of a Natalie Leuzinder three-pointer to open the quarter. Abbey Ellis headlined Purdue's 8-0 run, scoring six points in just over 90 seconds of game action.
The Badgers stopped the bleeding after the run, but the Boilermakers coasted to an easy road victory down the stretch.
The veteran duo of Abbey Ellis and Caitlyn Harper were lights out during the win, combining for 40 points on 15-26 shooting from the field and 4-7 from three-point range. Ellis has reached the 20 point mark in back-to-back games for just the second time in her Purdue career after having dropped 22 last time out against Michigan State.
Harper had a stellar showing in what was a homecoming, playing in her home state, scoring 19 points in a bounce back performance. The sixth-year senior had scored just six points on 3-13 shooting over the previous two games.
Despite being the star of the first half, Mary Ashley Stevenson was held scoreless in the second half before fouling out to finish with a line of 12 points and five rebounds.
The late-season surge of freshman Sophie Swanson also continued on Sunday afternoon as the rookie guard had 11 points on 4-9 shooting, all coming in the second half. Over the last two games, Swanson is averaging 15.0 points on 50% shooting and 50% from the three-point line.
Purdue's 79 points were the most it had scored in a game since scoring 89 against these games Badgers in a win on December 30th.
