The Wisconsin Badgers (15-4, 5-2) took care of business against Penn State (5-13, 0-7) Saturday afternoon, defeating the Nittany Lions 86-55 at the Kohl Center. The Badgers have won five straight games and moved into sole possession of third place in the Big Ten Sunday after Illinois fell to Michigan State.
Senior Kirk Penney scored 28 points for the Badgers, moving him into 10th spot on the all-time scoring list at UW. Penney shot 10-of-15 on the afternoon and grabbed six rebounds, scoring most of his points after strong drives to the hoop
Sophomore Devin Harris ran the point guard position to near perfection for the Badgers, scoring 14 points and adding a career-high seven assists, along with nine rebounds and three steals.
The Badgers shot an astounding 60.7 percent from the field, behind the strength of a 21-of-30 first half performance that propelled the Badgers to a 50-22 halftime lead.
But it was the Badger defense that really shined Saturday as UW shut the Lions down, preventing Jerry Dunn’s team from finding any consistency or balance. The Lions shot a paltry 34 percent from the field as Harris kept the Lions’ leading scorer, Brandon Watkins, to only two points on 1-of-8 shooting.
The Badgers kept Penn State scoreless for a stretch of a little more than four minutes in the first half, allowing the Badgers to make a 13-0 run, pushing the lead from 22-11 to 35-11 with 7:25 to go in the first half.
“I can live with that 20 minutes,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “If we could have that every time, it would be pretty enjoyable. The guys stayed focused on what they had to do and took away from what Penn State was trying to establish.”
“We wanted to take their heart out right away and take all their confidence right away,” Harris said. “We did that so they don’t have the fight to make a run in the second half.”
Despite the height advantage of the Penn State frontcourt, UW was able to dominate the paint, outscoring the Lions 54-18 in the post. Alando Tucker had nine boards and eight points for the Badgers on 4-7 shooting, but Tucker, along with the other UW forwards, did a great job of opening up driving lanes for the guards. Junior Freddie Owens took such advantages to score 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
“You are going to have situations where there are going to be some inconsistencies,” Penn State head coach Jerry Dunn said. “Today was one of those days, and you certainly can’t afford to have [a day like this] on the road. When you are on the road against a team that is as good as Wisconsin is right now, and as well as they are playing it makes for a long day.”
The Badgers were all smiles as the day went on, connecting on several dunks including a rare break away slam from Owens and a phenomenal alley-oop from Harris to Alando Tucker. The slow arching pass from Harris appeared to be too high for Tucker to reach but landed in the hands of the freshman forward, who threw the ball down as the Kohl Center crowd erupted.
“I wouldn’t say it was easy, but we executed well,” Harris said. “We came out really hard, and I didn’t think they expected the defense that we put in.”
The day wasn’t all fun for Wisconsin, as the Badger bench was hit with a technical foul when Ryan had qualms with a charging foul called on Tucker with 14:40 left in the second half. Tucker was hit with a double technical, along with Penn State’s Sharif Chambliss, for a pushing match that ensued while the teams were awaiting a Badger inbounds pass with 5:38 remaining in the game.
Chambliss, a native of Racine, Wis., scored a quiet 20 points for Penn State and was the only Lion to reach double figures in scoring. Jan Jagla and DeForrest Riley each had seven points for Penn State, with Jagla contributing a team leading four rebounds.
The Badgers will take their five-game winning streak to Purdue Wednesday to face the conference-leading Boilermakers.
“I know we haven’t won there for 30 years, but it’s not really an issue,” Penney said. “You’ve got to approach it like any other game and be aggressive.”
