Kevin Borseth sat in the Kohl Center media room talking about how crucial a team's performance in down-to-the-wire games is to a season.

The Michigan women's basketball coach probably didn't realize how relevant his message was to the team his Wolverines had just finished playing.

"I really feel the success of a season is determined usually in seven games, seven games that are determined by five points or less," Borseth said last Thursday after Michigan handed the University of Wisconsin a 79-73 loss in overtime. "If you win those seven, you have a pretty good year. If you lose those seven, you generally don't have a pretty good year."

If you're looking for the cause of the Badgers' problems this season, the reason for them torpedoing from a potential Big Ten Conference title contender to being one game out of the cellar in the league standings, look no further than UW's performances in tight games.

The Badgers (8-9, 1-6 Big Ten), who host Penn State (13-6, 4-3) tonight at the Kohl Center, are 1-6 in contests decided by 10 points or less this season, and 0-5 in conference play.

They're 1-3 when the margin is five points or less, with the lone win coming Dec. 14 in a 66-62 victory over South Dakota State. UW has lost three overtime games, with two of those coming in the last three contests.

"It's a lot of factors that played into it," Badgers senior forward Danielle Ward said. "But all in all, we just didn't execute the things that we needed to at the times that we needed to do so."

Poor decision-making down the stretch on the offensive end, such as bad shot selection and poor passes, has plagued UW — like when the Badgers had three turnovers in overtime in a 67-66 loss to Wyoming — though coach Lisa Stone thought that improved in Sunday's 79-74 defeat at No. 15 Ohio State.

What hasn't gotten better is UW's defense.

The Badgers rallied to forge a 55-all tie with 8 minutes, 12 seconds remaining against the Buckeyes, and actually shot 7-for-15 (46.7 percent) from the field and only turned the ball over twice from that point on. But Ohio State went six of nine from the field during the same stretch and converted on 11 of its 13 free throws.

UW had a six-point halftime lead against Michigan, but allowed the Wolverines to shave away an 11-point deficit in the second half.

Still, the Badgers wouldn't have found themselves in so many crucial late-game situations had they played better early on. In four of the six close losses, UW trailed at the half.

"The fact is that we're right there," said Stone, who has a 28-30 record at UW in games decided by 10 points or less. "That's encouraging. The fact that we didn't pull (them) out is maybe discouraging."

Award watch

Badgers senior guard Jolene Anderson, the Big Ten's leading scorer, is one of 31 players remaining on the midseason candidate list for the Naismith Award, given to the national player of the year.