A career-high for Paige, but a loss

By Shane Carney, correspondent

IOWA CITY -- It is easy to say that Morgan Paige, former Marion High School basketball standout, had a bittersweet return to Iowa on Thursday as her Wisconsin Badgers suffered a 69-57 women's basketball loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes.

“It is really exciting when you get to have a lot of family come to the game and see you play, but it still hurts a little when you don't actually get that victory,” Paige said.

Even as she was greeting her family and signing autographs for the kids surrounding her after a game in which she scored a career-high 20 points, the pain of Wisconsin's fifth Big Ten loss could be seen on her face.

To start the game, Paige was the first to make a mistake on Wisconsin's first possession with one of the Badgers' 17 turnovers. The rest of the Badgers team was able to keep up with the Hawkeyes and had the lead at halftime, 28-27. Paige did contribute a quiet six points on 2-of-6 shooting from the field while committing another turnover.

It was not until the second half that Paige began to turn up the heat. Five minutes into the second half the Hawkeyes were up 40-33 and were looking to pull away and tie up the win early. Yet, Paige sank back-to-back 3-pointers within two minutes to bring the Badgers back within two.

“Yeah, it is always nervous to come back home and play in front of the family, but once I came out to play in the second I just felt more comfortable,” Paige said, mentioning it was thanks to UW Coach Bobbie Kelley telling her to focus on what comes naturally to her and if she remembers how she practices, the game would come to her.

And it did. Paige finished the night with her career-high shooting 7-of-15 with six of those shots coming from behind the arc. While also contributing on the defensive end with two steals and one block, she remained focused on how the team can improve.

Paige repeatedly mentioned it is the little things the Badgers need to continue to work on to make the whole team better.

“We need to focus on defense, mainly one-on-situations,” she said. “That's something we'll drill on before (Sunday's game against Northwestern at Madison).”