It was in a weekend containing more than its share of the unexpected that the University of Wisconsin women's basketball team found something it fully expected to see entering this season.

The Badgers endured travel delays on their flight last week to Malibu, Calif., to play in a Thanksgiving tournament hosted by Pepperdine, and then got lost on their way to practice.

And to top it all off, UW only got to play one game because the second day of the tournament was canceled when wildfires hit the area.

Luckily for the Badgers, that game turned out to be their best performance of the young season, a 74-57 win over Mississippi.

For the first time in four games, senior guard Jolene Anderson didn't have to carry the scoring load, because the balanced attack UW thought it had coming into the year finally showed up.

Anderson still had a team-high 19 points, but the Badgers had three other players in double figures: sophomore forward Mariah Dunham (14), senior guard Janese Banks (11) and freshman forward Lin Zastrow (11).

"I think some folks broke out," said UW coach Lisa Stone, whose team was 10-1 last season when it had four players score in double figures. "We just had really good balance. What we did is we shared the ball really well.

"We were patient, got the ball to the hot hand when it was there and found open shots. So it's something that … wasn't a surprise to me."

What's most surprising is how much of a struggle it's been for the Badgers (2-2) to find that balance so far. It's something they'll need more of Friday night, when they travel to Charlottesville, Va., to face Virginia (4-3) as part of the inaugural ACC-Big Ten Women's Challenge.

UW had plenty of reason to believe it wouldn't have problems generating offense heading into the season.

Banks (14.6 points per game last season) has given the Badgers a second option behind Anderson throughout her career, while Dunham came back in better shape after ranking third on the team as a freshman with eight points per contest.

And Stone added three freshmen — Zastrow, point guard Alyssa Karel and forward Tara Steinbauer — capable of scoring on a team that returned all of its major contributors.

"I think everyone probably expected us coming in that we would have a lot of scorers," Zastrow said. "And then all of a sudden those first two games …"

Actually, the first three games all saw UW rely heavily on Anderson, who averaged nearly 28 points per game in that span.

And while other players lightened her load against Mississippi, the Badgers still aren't shooting the ball too well. Dunham was 4-for-12 against the Rebels and only is connecting at 30 percent this season.

Banks is shooting 33 percent and UW as a team is at 39.8 percent, which ranks ninth among Big Ten Conference teams.

Stone thinks a combination of hesitation and "playing really quick" has caused some of the problems, but saw reason for optimism against Mississippi and has committed more time to shooting at practice this week.

"Against Ole Miss, it was good to see that everyone was getting a chance to get in there and put some points up on the board," Dunham said.

"I'm not surprised if Jolene or Janese go off for 20, 30, however many. They're great players, but … we're capable this year of it not having to just be Jolene and Janese that lead the team."