Once again, an early-season game at the Kohl Center finished with a score more apt for a Badger football game than a matchup on the hardwood.

The No. 14 Wisconsin Badger men’s basketball team (1-0) opened its regular season with an 85-31 victory over the Kennesaw State Owls (0-1) Saturday afternoon. Sophomore guard Ben Brust displayed the shooting prowess that has heightened expectations for him as a key contributor off the bench this season, tying for the team-lead with 14 points on 5-for-11 shooting from the field.

The Badgers other’ sophomore guard, Josh Gasser, also scored 14 points while redshirt junior guard/forward Ryan Evans finished with 13. Star senior point guard Jordan Taylor finished with 11 points, seven assists, four rebounds and two steals.

“When you let a team shoot 59 percent, they shoot 60 percent from three, they out-rebound you by 20, I don’t think there’s too much more that you can say, except you’ve got to go back to the drawing board,” KSU head coach Lewis Preston said.

Kennesaw State, an Atlantic Sun Conference school of 23,452 students in Kennesaw, Ga., struggled to find much of an offensive rhythm that would match the bevy of scorers Wisconsin was able to put on the floor. Ten Badgers saw at least 10 minutes of playing time and scored.

The Owls were led by junior guard Markeith Cummings with 18 points, but as a team, shot only 23.3 percent from the field, 20 percent from three-point territory and 56.3 percent from the free throw line.

“I never read too much into one game,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “I know they were a little short-handed, their coach is new and he’s trying to install a system.”

Jared Berggren scored Wisconsin’s first points of the season at the 18:52 mark with a three-pointer to match Kennesaw State’s opening trey from Spencer Dixon. Berggren, a redshirt junior forward/center finished with 11 points and three rebounds.

Both teams attempted to settle in over the next two minutes until Taylor converted a layup at 16:27. From there, the Badgers scored 11 unanswered points. Following a media timeout at 11:46, the Owls finally scored again on a fastbreak layup by Markeith Cummings.

Kennesaw State only scored three more points in the first half, on a free throw by Cummings and a jumper from guard Spencer Dixon, and entered halftime trailing Wisconsin 41-8.

Struggling to hit shots and find open teammates, the Owls were clearly overmatched by the Badgers’ ability to create for themselves. Kennesaw finished with only two assists to its 12 turnovers, while the Badgers excelled in that department, as usual, with 23 and 10, respectively. As a result, Wisconsin frequently was able to consume the majority of the shot clock and convert opportunities – especially from outside. For the game, UW converted 15 of its 25 three-pointers, good for 60 percent.

“[The Badgers are] one of the best shooting teams, late-clock, in the country; probably, the best overall,” Preston said. “It was kind of indicative with some of the threes that Brust knocked down, a couple of the threes that Jordan Taylor knocked down, a couple of the threes Gasser knocked down.”

In the second half, the Owls shot a little better, converting seven of 20 (35 percent) opportunities from the field. However, the Badgers also shot better (64 percent compared to 53.8 in the first half) and used their obvious size advantage to murder KSU on the boards, out-rebounding them 41-20. Junior forward Mike Bruesewitz, in addition to his seven points and four assists, pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.

“We’ve got bigs who can set good screens and then roll or space out and knock down shots, so it makes it hard for teams to scramble late in the shot clock,” Taylor said. “Our bigs can also put it on the floor and make plays. It’s just a lot for a team to try and handle, especially when you’re scrambling around like that.”

Also of note was the playing time freshman Traevon Jackson and Frank Kaminsky saw in their first games as Badgers. Jackson, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound guard and son of former Ohio State great Jim Jackson, played 13 minutes, nailed one trey and pulled down two rebounds. Kaminsky, a 6-foot-11, 230-pound forward, played 10 minutes, scored five points and pulled down five rebounds.