After some rough outings, Wisconsin basketball got hot early against UW-Green Bay and the result was a comfortable win.
Wisconsin basketball fans got the performance and the result they desparately wanted on Saturday afternoon at the Kohl Center. The Badgers romped over in-state “rival” UW-Green Bay coasting to a 80-61 win.
The Badgers used a perfect start from the field to gain some separation they would not relinquish. In fact, Bucky hit its first 10 shots of the game.
The first Wisconsin miss didn’t come until 11:44 left in the first half when Walt McGrory bricked a corner triple. But by that point Wisconsin had already raced to a 25-13 advantage.
Wisconsin Badgers Basketball
In fact, the only thing permitting the visiting Phoenix to hang around was turnovers. Wisconsin turned it over six times in the first 14 minutes. Expensive empty trips when you’re shooting as well as Wisconsin was.
However, the Badgers limited UW-Green Bay into the break. Wisconsin took a 44-24 lead into halftime as the final result was never threatened.
For the game, Wisconsin shot 30/56 (53.6 percent) but just 5/19 from behind the arc (26.3 percent). The Badger doubled up UW-Green Bay on the glass (40-20).
In addition, Bucky shot 16/20 from the free throw line so that’s a marked improvement. The only negative stat was Wisconsin had more turnovers (15) than assists (13).
Individually, nine different Badgers scored. Let’s give a shout out to Aleem Ford who is showing a nice balanced offensive game. He scored eight of Wisconsin’s first 18 points and was outscoring UW-Green Bay himself (Ford 8 UWGB 7) at the 14:33 mark of the first half.
It hit its first 10 shots, and @BadgerMBB never looked back en route to beating Green Bay. pic.twitter.com/QJpOstEkqF
— Wisconsin On BTN (@WisconsinOnBTN) December 24, 2017
Brad Davison had an interesting stat line for his game high 18 points. He shot 7/14 overall but was just 1/7 from three. So maybe stick inside the arc buddy.
Khalil Iverson was a perfect 5/5 from the floor en route to 12 points. However he did turn it over four times, most on the team. Most significantly, Ethan Happ was an efficient 7/9 and added 14 points and eight rebounds. Getting him in rhythm is always crucial for the Badger offense.
Next: Wisconsin Basketball Moving Forward After Finals
In sum, Wisconsin flattened an opponent they should have. That is a little reassuring.
The Badgers are back in action with two more non-conference games to close out 2017. They’ll play four games in 10 days from December 27th to January 5th.