The Badger Herald

SPORTS

Hughes, Badgers tame defenseless Tigers

JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo

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Also by Ben Voelkel:

Rocky trip Outback for UW (January 1, 2008)

by Ben Voelkel

Friday, November 16, 2007

Center Greg Stiemsma made a layup, then two foul shots.

Guard Joe Krabbenhoft laid in a short shot, and Marcus Landry followed with four points of his own.

Point guard Trevon Hughes hit a 3-pointer.

Forward Brian Butch dropped in a layup. For good measure, Hughes followed with one of his own.

All five Wisconsin starters scored a total of 17 points, and more than six minutes of the first half elapsed before Savannah State managed to find a way to get the ball in the hoop.

"That run put is great position to pretty much control the game," Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said.

By the time the Tigers managed to score on a tough jumper by Anthony Jones with 13:58 remaining in the half, the game had already slipped too far out of hand for Savannah State and Wisconsin was well on its way to an easy 79-32 victory in the America's Youth Classic.

"We definitely want to keep getting off to fast starts," Stiemsma said. "If we can get up [17] to zero, we'll take that any day."

The Badgers (2-0) used their vast size advantage — the Tigers' (2-2) tallest starter was 6-foot-8 — to build their lead almost entirely inside the lane on layups and short jumpers. In the quick spurt, Wisconsin shot a perfect 6-of-6 in the paint, with many of the field goals coming off good ball movement.

"Especially early I thought the passing from our bigs was very crisp," Ryan said.

The 6-foot-11 Stiemsma — a very good passer for his size — distributed the ball especially well for the Badgers early and finished with four assists for the game.

"He's got the ability to be a good passer," Ryan said of Stiemsma.

Stiemsma showed that ability early during the run when he caught a pass from Landry at the top of the key and immediately threw a quick pass to a cutting Krabbenhoft for an easy layup.

"The more minutes he plays the more great passes and great things he's going to do. For guys like me and Trevon, … we just love being out there with him because he's very unselfish," Krabbenhoft said.

"One of the things we've been trying to work on is getting off to a fast start and picking up our intensity a little bit," Stiemsma said. "If I'm that guy that can get a couple things moving…"

The Tigers tried to counter the quick lead by picking up the Badgers in a full court press and had some success doing so — cutting the lead to 12 at 19-7 — but that was as close as they would come. Wisconsin's defense stiffened and held Savannah State to just 14 first-half points.

"Especially coming out last game with it being close 10 minutes into the game, I thought it was important … just to jump on them on both ends, but especially on the defensive end," Krabbenhoft said.

Wisconsin did that with smothering defense that led to Savannah State missing its first six shots of the game and four turnovers before scoring.

"We played well as a team defensively, we knew their tendencies and tried to make them do things out of the norm that they wouldn't do," Hughes said. "We forced a couple bad shots."

For the game, Savannah State made only 12 field goal attempts, shooting a meager 24.5 percent from the field.

"How many jumpers that they hit were tough, where they had to shoot through or over one of our defenders?" Ryan asked.

"I would say the 12 field goals they had, five or six of them had to be with us chested up, high-hand pressure and then them just shooting over the top of us."

The 32 points allowed by the Badgers was the fewest points allowed by a Wisconsin team since Loyola-Chicago was held to 29 in the 1998 season opener.

Wisconsin must now regroup and turn its attention to Florida A&M to prepare to play the Rattlers Friday on short rest.

After playing Colorado on Saturday, the Badgers will have played three games in three days, a rare occurrence for Division I college basketball.

"I think it's definitely a good opportunity to get out in front of the crowd, get the legs hot," Stiemsma said.

In the opening game of the America's Youth Classic, Colorado topped Florida A&M by a final score of 83-59. Colorado's Xavier Silas lead all scorers with 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including making three of five 3-pointers.

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