[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]If there was any indication of how bad things were going for the men's basketball team in their 62-55 loss to North Dakota State Saturday, it was written all over the faces of the Badger reserves.

Tanner Bronson's eyes wandered all over the Kohl Center, Kevin Gullikson's hands covered his face, Morris Cain's fingernails nervously graced his lips and Greg Stiemsma never took his eyes off the clock on the scoreboard.

Things were just not going the Badgers' way. Shot after shot constantly hit the rim, and in the end the Badgers shot 16-for-72 (22 percent) from the field.

"This had to be the worst shooting performance from a team that I have ever been on," junior Alando Tucker said. "We could not knock down any shots."

"I don't know how to describe it," Kammron Taylor said. "It was just a terrible shooting day."

The game started off on a high note for the Badgers as they went up by as many as seven points within the first eight minutes of the contest.

However, the next 12 minutes saw North Dakota State go on a 26-5 run and Wisconsin shoot 1-for-17, as the half ended with the Badgers down 30-16.

The second half started with a little momentum on the UW side as sophomore Brian Butch notched an easy lay-up. Junior Jason Chappell would add a jumper and senior Ray Nixon drained a three-pointer as the Badgers went on a 7-2 run.

The Bison quickly responded and brought their lead up to 18 points with seven minutes remaining.

"We were coming back. We were starting to get runs, but we were never able to cap it off. … We weren't taking it possession by possession. We were trying to get it all back in one or two possessions." Tucker said. "We were missing a lot of the easy shots and I think that got to us. We weren't forcing too much of anything, but when you miss the easy ones, it starts to wear on you."

As the team continued to miss a few more easy shots, a frustrated Taylor would score the next nine points for the Badgers to bring the score to within nine points.

The junior guard would add six more points, bringing the game within four, before he became the first Badger to foul out all season with 15 seconds remaining in the contest.

"I didn't even know I had four fouls before I made that last foul," Taylor said. "It was very frustrating. I think that was the first time I've ever fouled out in my life."

After Taylor took his spot on the bench, the Badgers would not score another point and the game ended in North Dakota State's first upset of the season.

"Today was our day. I'm proud of the kids," Bison head coach Tim Miles said. "They battled. They weren't intimidated. This wasn't an easy environment. Wisconsin's record shows that this is not an easy thing to do. For an upstart like us to do it, I'm just so proud of our people."

"We didn't shoot it well," UW head coach Bo Ryan said. "When the ball doesn't go in, you can't explain it all the time. We've been over this a lot of times when we've shot well and the other team didn't. It's always a combination of defense and selection at times.

"I think we rushed some of our offense at times, but we had great opportunities to score, and (especially on) those last seven, eight minutes on some pretty close shots."

In the end, Taylor shot 6-for-24 for 19 points, while Tucker went 2-for-18 from the floor and 7-for-9 from the charity stripe.

"I shot 2-for-18. I cannot be happy with that at all," Tucker said. "If we are going to be at the top in the Big Ten, that cannot happen, especially from a guy like me with a lot of experience."