Having seen so many zone defenses this season, the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team appeared more than comfortable in breaking Penn State's 2-3 set Saturday.

As the Nittany Lions collapsed on the Badgers' big men in the post, Wisconsin simply kicked the ball out, stepped behind the 3-point arc and knocked down the outside shots.

In the 75-49 victory, Wisconsin shot 12-of-23 (52.2 percent) from 3-point range, which accounted for nearly half of the Badgers' total points in the game.

"[Penn State was] jamming everything pretty good, taking away our post feeds, and if you don't hit a few of those [3-pointers] it makes it pretty difficult to get something later in the post," UW head coach Bo Ryan said.

"If you're not stretching the defense, you have to hit some and against a team like that playing the way they were, you're going to take more outside shots," Ryan continued. "It's just natural. You're going to hit some, and our guys did."

The first-half was more a 3-point shooting contest than a basketball game. Both teams shot more than 50 percent from 3-point range, with Penn State connecting on 5-of-9 (55.6 percent) 3-pointers and Wisconsin hitting 7-of-12 treys (58.3 percent). In fact, the outside shooting actually turned out to be the most proficient shot in the first half as Penn State made just 4-of-11 (36 percent) shots from inside the 3-point line and Wisconsin didn't fare much better at 5-of-16 (31 percent).

The Nittany Lions' first 12 points of the game came off 3-pointers and the Badgers answered back with some long-range bombs of their own. UW junior forward Brian Butch started the 3-point battle with the game's first field goal — a 3-pointer from the top of the key, a spot Badgers senior guard Kammron Taylor would later find to be his hot spot.

Taylor connected on three of his game-high four 3-pointers from that very spot, two in the first half coming off screens to bust Penn State's zone defense.

But while Taylor led the 3-point barrage, it was freshman guard Jason Bohannon who stole the show in the first half. Bohannon hit all three of his 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes, giving the Badgers a lift off the bench to combat the Nittany Lions' early long-range success.

With Penn State up 9-7, Bohannon came in and knocked down a 3-pointer off of an unconventional Alando Tucker spinning assist with 15:26 remaining in the first half. Taylor would later find Bohannon in the corner by himself and on the wing off of a flare screen for his other two 3's.

"He has that confidence [to knock down 3-pointers] and I have that confidence in him," Tucker said of Bohannon. "He was relaxed and it helped us out a tremendous deal. They had to pay attention where he was and I think he really opened up the lane for us on the inside."

In the second half, Tucker added some 3-pointers of his own. The Wooden Award candidate settled down after a 1-for-6 shooting performance in the first half and finished 8-of-15 shooting for a game-high 22 points, while making 3-of-6 from behind the 3-point line.

In recent games, Tucker's 3-point shooting has come around as he has shot 50 percent from behind the line.

"I'm looking for my opportunities around the perimeter now," Tucker said. "Teams have been doing a lot to try to stop me from scoring or getting in a rhythm. I know a lot of teams probably think their percentages are better forcing me to shoot an outside shot and I like that."

And Wisconsin's 3-point shooting as a whole has improved lately as well. After a slow start to the Big Ten season in terms of outside shooting, the Badgers have found their groove and have shot at least 40 percent from behind the 3-point line in the last five games.

It's no fluke either. Ryan stressed the importance of having a strong inside-outside game in practice and the hard work is starting to pay off.

"[Ryan] took time in practice and kind of explained the kind of 3-point shots we were taking," Bohannon said. "Some of them were forced at the beginning of the shot clock really early in a possession and we never really touched the post. Now we're getting it down inside into the zone and touching the post a lot of times, and it's creating a lot of openings.

"[Ryan] said our shots will come," Bohannon added. "He said don't worry about if the shots don't fall. … Things will start falling our way."