The fatal formula is simply becoming too repetitive for the Gophers women's basketball team: Jump out to a halftime lead, get comfortable in the second half, then let a Big Ten opponent storm back and steal a victory.

The Gophers fell to Wisconsin 71-63 on Thursday after leading by as many as 16 points in the first half and taking a 14-point halftime lead. In all three conference home games this season, the Gophers (8-11, 0-6 Big Ten) have squandered a double-digit second-half lead, this time before an announced crowd of 4,117 at Williams Arena.

"I thought we looked like a great basketball team in the first half," coach Pam Borton said. "We completely got away from the [game plan] in the second half. [We] didn't execute well defensively, and that really affected our offense."

Behind a 63.6 percent shooting effort, the Badgers (10-9, 5-2) outscored the Gophers 41-19 in the second half, producing the second-biggest comeback in program history. Three seniors settled the veteran Badgers during the comeback as Lin Zastrow had 21 points and 12 rebounds, former Cretin-Derham Hall standout Alyssa Karel added 21 points and seven rebounds and former Bloomington Kennedy star Tara Steinbauer scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half.

Wisconsin kept chipping away at the lead and took a 59-57 lead with 4:37 left when Zastrow converted a three-point play. The Gophers -- who didn't make a field goal for a stretch of nearly eight minutes over the game's final 10 and shot only 20.6 percent from the floor in the second half -- never led again.

The Gophers carried a 44-30 lead into the break with their best offensive half of the season. Sophomore guard Leah Cotton, who scored 15 of her game-high 24 points in the first half, netted eight consecutive points as the Gophers used a 15-3 run to jump out to an early 34-18 lead.

The Gophers were 15-for-15 from the free-throw line in the first half, but their aggression diminished in the second -- they had a near shot clock violation on their first possession -- and they finished the game 20-for-23.

A plethora of forced shots also doomed the Gophers in the second half, and Cotton made only three of 11 shots after a 5-for-7 start.

"I was just trying to attack, be more aggressive, get points some kind of way," Cotton said. "It's unfortunate the way it turned out."

The Gophers also couldn't overcome another dreadful shooting performance from leading scorer Kiara Buford, who finished 2-for-13 from the field and is shooting only 15.7 percent in three Big Ten home games.

"There's a lot of the season left," Borton said. "We're not going to give up. We're not quitters. We're a better team than this.

"Our margin for error is very small, and we have to win games as a team."