BROOKINGS, S.D. — A look at the stat sheet provides a clear view of how the Wisconsin Badgers women's basketball team fared in its non-conference season opener Monday night.

The Badgers had a turnover-to-assist ratio of 23-to-5, missed 10 of 15 free throws and allowed its opponent to shoot 72.3 percent from the field in the first half.
The result was a 64-44 loss to South Dakota State before 2,812 spectators at Frost Arena in Brookings, S.D.

"We have a very strong non-conference season that's going to make us better," UW coach Lisa Stone said. "We will be better the next time, but again, there's just some areas that we've got to shore up before Thursday."

Indeed, there is work to be done ahead of UW's home opener against Drake at the Kohl Center.

After UW took an 8-0 lead, the Jackrabbits (2-0) had scoring runs of 11 and nine points to assume a 20-10 advantage. The Badgers committed five turnovers during South Dakota State's second spurt.

"They really denied us hard and we tried to put it on the floor and get to the cup instead of making that extra pass,'' Stone said of the overall turnovers.

In the game's first 10 minutes, the Jackrabbits made all four of their 3-point attempts and were 7-for-10 from the field. SDSU was 6-for-7 from beyond the arc and shot 16 of 22 in the first half to build a 42-26 lead.

"We had a little trouble defending the 3 in the first half, obviously, and then in the second half they got it in the high-low a little bit more on us than we wanted to," Stone said.

The Jackrabbits went ahead 60-35 with 4 minutes, 49 seconds to play and eventually won at home for the 42nd time in the last 45 games.

Sophomore guard Alyssa Karel was the only UW player to score in double figures, finishing with 11 points.

"We've got to make some better decisions, take higher percentage shots, try to get the ball inside more and be a little tougher," Stone said. "This team here showed us what toughness is all about.