[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]After a pair of scoring “malfunctions,” the Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s annual Red-White scrimmage ended in an 85-85 tie.

Head coach Bo Ryan left the coaching to his assistants and even though Red led 32-22 at the half — before building the lead to 71-48 during the second half — the score was changed to 71-71 with five minutes to play in order to simulate a close game. With 14.7 seconds left, and White team now ahead, the score was once again changed — this time to 84-84 — before Brian Butch’s free throw finally put the White team ahead 85-84.

“We tied it up … to find the go-to guys, have a little bit more pressure at the end of the game,” Ryan said, explaining the scrimmage’s scoring changes.

On the ensuing possession, however, Morris Cain of the Red team corralled a loose ball and was fouled by Jason Bohannon with 1.1 seconds remaining.

After White coach Greg Gard called a timeout to try to ice Cain, the junior missed the first free throw and made the second to tie the game.

A floor-length pass to Butch got deflected, and the senior was unable to get a shot off in time.

There wasn’t much scoring early on for either team, as the Badgers were playing on the Kohl Center court for the first time this season and exhibited a little bit of rust.

“You can definitely tell the difference in shooting with the background,” Ryan said of shooting at the Kohl Center hoops.

The White team, featuring sharpshooter Jason Bohannon, finished a dismal 1-14 from behind the 3-point line. The Red team didn’t fare much better, shooting just 2-9 from behind the arc.

“There’s guys that have better practices than the way they’ve played today, and there are guys that have played better today than what they did in practices,” Ryan said, acknowledging that the scrimmage isn’t necessarily an indicator of how players will play.

Still though, Butch was the game’s leading scorer with 20 points, including three monster dunks that served notice the senior has recovered from the late-season injury that sidelined him last season.

The surprise of the game, however, may have been Cain. The forward finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and an impressive block on Butch that wowed the crowd.

Cain and Butch were two of the seven Badgers who scored in double figures.

Junior Kevin Gullikson had 11, Joe Krabbenhoft had 18 and freshman Keaton Nankivil had 13 for White.

Marcus Landry finished with 11 points and freshman Jon Leuer finished with 13 for the Red squad.

The crowd’s biggest reaction came when Bohannon found Landry for a sweet alley-oop on second-half breakaway.

Though the scoring came easier once both teams started to loosen up, Ryan was still pleased with the defensive effort out of both sides.

Even so, the coach said it is tough to truly measure defensive success during an intra-squad scrimmage.

“These guys are going against each other every day on all these possessions,” Ryan said. “Defensively I think you find out more once you play against other people … Is it bad defense when you score or is it good offense? You never know.”

With Wisconsin’s first game — an exhibition against UW-Eau Claire Nov. 4 — still a couple weeks away, the scrimmage gave the team a chance to improve and pinpoint what it needs to work on.

“Anything that you do, you can learn from it,” Ryan said. “We’ll learn from it.”