BADGERS RALLY PAST SALUKIS

Madison Capital Times

Madison, Wis.

Nov 20, 1999

Dateline: LINCOLN, NEB.

Thanks to some early foul trouble, Nina Smith's much-anticipated debut

with the University of Wisconsin women's basketball team didn't go exactly

as planned.

But that doesn't mean Smith's impact wasn't felt Friday night.

With Smith back on the floor in the second half, the Badgers rallied from

a 10-point halftime deficit and beat Southern Illinois, 66-58, in the first

round of the Nebraska Time Warner Cable Classic.

The Badgers (1-0) advance to the championship game at 3 p.m. on Sunday,

where they will face host Nebraska. The 24th-ranked Cornhuskers were 113-77

winners over Georgia Southern.

Smith, who played just 6 minutes in the opening half, scored six points

to spark a 19-8 run that gave the Badgers a 41-40 lead midway through the

second half. She finished with 11 points.

"I felt I came out a little too strong at first," said Smith, a 6- foot-4

center who was a high school All-American. "I feel like as a post player

I need to adjust to the refs and that's not something I did well. It took

me three fouls to adjust to the way that they were calling the game."

After Smith and sophomore forward Jessie Stomski (team-high 15 points)

wore the Salukis down on the inside, senior guard Kelley Paulus went to

work on the outside.

Paulus, who didn't start the game, scored 11 of her 14 points in the final

10 minutes as UW used an 18-9 run to pull away.

"I felt like I needed to get really focused at the end," said Paulus, who

also hit several key free throws. "For some reason, the whole team didn't

come out focused in the first half and at the start of the second half.

But once we did, I had those opportunities to hit the big shots and we

really needed them."

LaTonya Sims added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds for the Badgers,

who shot 77.3 percent as a team in the second half after shooting just

34.5 percent in the first half.

"I was not pleased with out first-half effort individually or as a team,"

said UW coach Jane Albright. "I really feel we were out- worked. (The Salukies)

had a lot more intensity, and I let our players know how I felt at halftime.

Fortunately, we came back out and played like the team we can be."

WISCONSIN

min fg fga ft fta reb pf a pt Moore 23 3 6 0 0 3 5 2 6 Stomski 32 6 10

2 3 6 4 2 15 N. Smith 22 5 6 1 2 3 5 3 11 Pate 32 1 2 1 4 0 1 4 3 Sims

31 6 14 1 2 7 0 2 13 C. Smith 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Paulus 24 4 8 5 6 3 1 3

14 Black 9 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Bird 5 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 Konieczny 19 2 4 0 0

6 2 0 4 Totals 200 27 51 10 17 30 19 17 66

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

min fg fga ft fta reb pf a pt Hathaway 26 4 11 0 0 2 0 0 9 Abramowski 37

3 6 0 1 9 4 3 6 Bardley 36 5 9 3 4 8 3 1 13 Holloway 39 0 5 1 1 2 1 4 1

McDowell 25 2 11 6 6 2 3 3 12 Graves 16 3 6 0 1 1 3 1 6 Morancie 1 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 Lopez 13 3 4 0 0 0 0 3 7 Berwanger 7 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 4 Totals

200 22 55 10 13 31 15 15 58

Rebounding totals include team rebounds Wisconsin 2244 - 66 Southern Illinois

3226 - 58

Three-point goals - Wisconsin 2-5 (Stomski 1-1, Paulus 1-3, Moore 0-1),

Southern Illinois 4-7 (McDowell 2-3, Hathaway 1-1, Lopez 1-2, Graves 0-1).

Field-goal percentages - Wisconsin .529, Southern Illinois .400. Free-throw

percentages - Wisconsin .588, Southern Illinois .769. Turnovers - Wisconsin

19, Southern Illinois 21. Att. - NA.