SPORTS
Badgers fall under weight of orange crush
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Stacy Hicklin:
- Badgers fall under weight of orange crush (February 19, 2004)
- Chambliss finally at home (February 25, 2004)
- One shot from starting 3-0 (January 19, 2004)
- Unlikely stars notch Big Ten win (January 22, 2004)
- Unlikely stars notch Big Ten win (January 23, 2004)
Related Stories:
- Williams delivers for Illinois (February 19, 2004)
- Badgers take Big Ten lead to Illinois (February 18, 2004)
- Badgers hope to move past Illini loss (February 15, 2005)
- Scoring run dooms Badgers as they fall to Illini on road (November 8, 2004)
- Badgers look to build on upset (February 10, 2005)
by Stacy Hicklin
Thursday, February 19, 2004
(CHAMPAIGN, Ill.) — After suffering a 20-point loss to Wisconsin three weeks ago, the Fighting Illini had a score to settle when the No. 10 Badgers came to their house. Illinois guard Deron Williams said after being embarrassed by Wisconsin, his team circled last night’s game on the calendar and vowed to be ready the next time the two teams met.
And ready they were, as the Illini fought back from being down by as much as six points in the first half to come away with an important 65 to 57 Big Ten victory. The loss gives the Badgers and the Illini identical records going into the final stretch of the Big Ten season, as both teams are now 17-5 overall and 8-3 in Big Ten play.
Despite being down by eight points with eight minutes and 31 seconds left, the Badgers went on a 7-0 run to pull the score to 50-49 with 5:32 remaining in the game.
The run, keyed by two baskets from Devin Harris and a huge 3-pointer from Zach Morley, was not quite enough as the Illini mounted a run of their own.
Illinois’ James Augustine and Roger Powell hit two free throws each with Williams adding two free throws and a basket of his own to put the Illini back up by nine points with 3:17 left to play. The Badgers were unable to mount another comeback.
“It was a physical game and those things happen sometimes. When you are playing from behind, those last few, you have to do that, you have to push [the ball],” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “Things didn’t go our way. We had to score, and it got to the point where we had to foul. They missed a few, and I thought we had a chance … we had to come down and capitalize because we had the timeouts to use. In my mind I saw a comeback; I guess in their minds they didn’t.”
Within that same stretch, the Badgers turned the ball over four times and failed to get anything going on the offensive end of the court.
“Usually that’s what we try to do to the other team,” said Wisconsin forward Zach Morley. “We were careless with the ball, and they capitalized on it.”
Those four turnovers were only the tip of the iceberg as the Badgers committed a season-high 17 turnovers. The team’s previous high in turnovers, 14, was against Maryland Dec. 2.
“Out turnovers weren’t from passing to the wrong jersey, they were from getting stripped. I never saw so many hands,” Ryan said. “I thought they changed the mascot to the octopi or octopus. There were a lot of hands out there.”
In addition to forcing the Badgers to turn the ball over so frequently, the Illini also proved successful in stopping the red-hot play of Harris. In the two teams’ previous meeting Harris poured in 30 points, scoring at will and therefore controlling the pace of the game.
Although Harris did end with a team-high 16 points, Illinois stopped him from taking over the game in the final minutes — something he is getting accustomed to doing.
“They had good pressure and pushed us to a lot of spots we didn’t want to go,” Harris said. “To get four turnovers in a row at the end was disappointing. They weren’t smart plays.”
The Badgers also saw a quiet night from forward Mike Wilkinson, who had 24 points in the last meeting in Madison in which he scored 14 of the team’s first 18 points. This time against the Fighting Illini, Wilkinson scored seven points and shot the ball a mere five times in 36 minutes of play. Coach Ryan attributes much of that to the fact that Wilkinson and Powell, who also had 24 points in the last meeting, neutralized each other by battling hard down low. Powell was only able to tally seven points as well.
A bright spot for the Badgers, however, was the play of Morley, who had one of his better shooting games of the year, after struggling recently to find his shot. Against intense defensive pressure, Morley got things going early for the Badgers as he scored six points, including a rim-rattling dunk, in a matter of three minutes to give his team a 12-8 lead. Shortly thereafter, Morley got himself into foul trouble and sat most of the remainder of the first half. In the second half, Morley came back out firing as his timely shooting toward the end of the game helped put his team within striking distance.
“It’s been awhile (referring to his good shooting game), but I can’t be too happy because we still lost the game in the end,” Morley said.
Reserve center Dave Mader also shinned in the first half, coming off the bench to give the Badgers an added presence in the post, scoring six points in nine minutes of play.
“They (Mader and Morley) worked hard in the first half,” Ryan said. “They played possession for possession in the first half.”
Click here to view photos from the game
