**Wisconsin 64-Iowa 51**
It wasn't pretty, but it was a win.
While it was close for a while, Wisconsin proved to be too much for Iowa, as UW won its Big Ten home opener 64-51 Saturday.
The Badgers (12-2, 2-0 Big Ten) shot only 41 percent for the game, but spread out the undermanned Hawkeyes (7-8, 0-2) and used hard cuts and good post feeds to dominate the inside to the tune of 26 points in the paint.
"Offense is in a lot of ways spacing," Iowa coach Todd Lickliter said. "Wisconsin has terrific spacing, they're skilled, they're efficient and unselfish. … What happened was we were behind plays a lot, which caused us to foul."
And foul they did. A lot.
Iowa was whistled for nearly twice as many fouls as Wisconsin–27 to 14–and the Badgers shot 27 free throws.
"That's one of those games where it was pretty physical, it is the Big Ten, and you just have to play through a lot of things at times," UW head coach Bo Ryan said. "I thought our guys did a good job of that and then when they got to the line, they were opportunistic. But a lot of those came as a result of having the lead and them trying to cut into it."
For the second time in three games, forward Brian Butch made his presence felt on the inside. The senior scored a game-high 22 points, including 12 from within the paint.
"We focus on doing that all the time," the senior said of working the ball inside. "We got some possessions down low in the first half, and me and Marcus (Landry) we just didn't connect on them. It really didn't change much as far as what we did, we try to focus again on getting it down low and finishing and scoring."
Coming off a breakout game in the conference opener against Michigan, freshman Jon Leuer had a another hot shooting game, making two of three 3-pointers and finishing with seven points in 14 minutes off the bench.
Happy hundred
With the win Saturday, Ryan secured his 100th victory in the Kohl Center. Ryan's teams are 100-6 in his seven years at the helm.
Naturally, the UW coach was none too concerned.
"Woo-hoo," Ryan sarcastically cheered when told of the achievement by a reporter, adding, "I'm just happy to be here."
