Four Badgers scored in double figures as the Wisconsin men’s basketball team cruised past the Northwestern Wildcats 69-50 Wednesday night at the Kohl Center. The game was largely decided on the glass, as the Badgers out-rebounded the Wildcats 42-21.

The Badgers blew the game open early on the strength of two Devin Harris steals. With 11:53 to play in the first half, Harris surprised a lazy Northwestern guard with his quick hands and took the ball the other way for an easy dunk. Before the Wildcats could get the ball past the half-court line on the ensuing possession, Harris had another steal and another easy two.

With the crowd finally awakened and UW holding a 22-11 lead, NU head coach Bill Carmody called a timeout. The Wildcats never got within nine the rest of the way. Only junior guard Jitim Young kept Northwestern, still without a Big Ten victory, somewhat in the game at halftime, with UW leading 35-25. He scored 14 of Northwestern’s points.

“I just thought they outplayed us on both ends of the court,” Carmody said. “The only guy that we can say got into the game offensively is Jitim. We didn’t really have much flow. To tell you the truth, being down only 10 at halftime was a surprise because I think they completely outplayed us in the first half. In the second half it was pretty much the same.”

In that second half, the Badgers limited Young to just three points, all from the foul line, thereby neutralizing Northwestern’s only major scoring threat.

“Obviously the guys guarding him, Devin and Freddie (Owens), adjusted, and that speaks volumes about them that they did adjust and they recognized at halftime that he had 14, and we had to make sure that we shut him down a little bit,” Kirk Penney said. “He’s a good player, and he’s got some great hesitations and he’s great in the lane, so that was a good job stopping him.”

Wisconsin used its overwhelming size advantage right from the start. On their first possession, the Badgers got the ball inside to Mike Wilkinson, who finished with 12 points and eight rebounds; he was quickly fouled on the shot. For the rest of the night, the Badgers got into the paint, whether on drives or post-ups, pretty much at will.

“Wilkinson was pretty dominating in the beginning, getting the ball inside and running down the rebounds,” Carmody said. “That really set the tone.”

Defensively, UW refused to give Northwestern the inside position, forcing its players to launch 22 three-pointers, of which only four saw the bottom of the net. Senior center Aaron Jennings was the only viable inside threat for the Wildcats, with 13 points and five rebounds.

“I thought we did a good job on each possession, defensively making them have to work hard,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “(There were only) three or four possessions where they got an easy pass into the lane, out of 60.”

Although the Badgers shot a mediocre 46.3 percent from the field, their 17 offensive rebounds allowed the team to reload often. For the game, UW was able to put up eight more field-goal attempts than Northwestern.

“We go after everybody (on the offensive glass) that way,” Ryan said. “Positioning, being active, hungry, aggressive but smart, not jumping over the back trying to get offensive rebounds, always trying to work underneath.”

Another key for the Badgers was limiting the number of backdoor passes by Northwestern, a staple of Carmody’s offense.

“I attribute a lot of it to our scout team. They gave us a great look of what [Northwestern] likes to do,” Harris said. “We just had to make sure that when they changed direction they came through our chest instead of around us, and that’s how they usually get their easy baskets.”

Two UW freshmen made huge contributions for the Badgers in this contest. Alando Tucker continued his big play with 14 points and eight rebounds in a staggering 38 minutes of play. But it was backup guard Boo Wade, who frequently flies under the radar, playing a career-high 30 minutes with no turnovers. He also added six points and four assists. Combined with Harris, who had nine points, Wisconsin’s point guards played a combined 76 minutes of turnover-free basketball, a number that will almost always equal victory.

Penney posted a “double-double” with 18 points and 12 rebounds, both game-highs, while Owens added 10 points. But the number that matters most for the Badgers (14-4, 4-2 Big Ten) is the team’s four-game winning streak, pulling it back from a 0-2 conference start.

“We learned a lot after the first two losses, so I attribute it to learning from our mistakes, and it helps to play at home,” Harris said.