EVANSTON, Ill. — While the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team is in the middle of its biggest slump since head coach Bo Ryan took over the program, two Badgers solved their personal struggles, bringing the team a step closer to fixing their problems.
On a night when the Badgers’ leading scorer Trevon Hughes shot only 3-for-10 from the field, Jason Bohannon and Jon Leuer combined for 23 points, missing only two three pointers between the two of them.
In the Badgers’ previous three games before facing Northwestern, Leuer and Bohannon only made eight shots out of their 37 combined attempts.
“[The first shot] helped a lot,” Bohannon said. “Our team’s confidence got down really quick when they hit a couple threes, but that kept us in the game. We’ve just got to keep playing and looking for those shots.”
Despite the loss, Ryan sees the pair’s improvement as an essential step to the team and the two players building much-needed confidence. Furthermore, aside from the confidence boost, Ryan believes the strong shooting night from both players gave the Badgers the necessary means to keep the game in check during the first half, especially with the Wildcats’ hot shooting.
“I think it was nice to see,” Ryan said. “We wouldn’t be in this ball game if those two didn’t hit some shots. They definitely needed some of that, but then something else gets in the way, and that’s what you have to find a way to stop.”
That “something else” Ryan referred to might be Northwestern’s Craig Moore, who scored 26 points despite averaging only 14.8 points per game. He alone scored more than Leuer and Bohannon, despite breaking out of their respective slumps.
Although Northwestern usually relies on forward Kevin Coble to be its main scoring threat, Moore broke out, shooting 7-for-11 on the night and sending the Badgers home with their sixth straight loss.
“[Moore] has been in a zone for about 18 straight games,” Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said. “Tonight he made some deep shots. … He drove to the basket, which he doesn’t really do that much.”
Also, with the Badgers down by one point multiple times with the clock winding down, the Wildcats were able to get the ball to Moore, the team’s best free-throw shooter and clearly the team’s go-to shooter on the day.
While the Badgers were trying to deny the ball to Moore at the end of the game, Northwestern was able to get him the ball with Wisconsin being forced to foul. Moore hit all eight of his free throws, including six in the final minute to put Wisconsin away for good.
“They were looking for him the whole time and their last few possessions he was their go-to guy,” Bohannon said. “We have to do a better job defending … but we shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position anyway.”
Game notes
The loss to Northwestern sent the Badgers home with their sixth consecutive defeat. That streak marks the first time in Bo Ryan’s career that his team lost six straight games. The last time the Badgers lost six straight was during the 1997-98 season, when they ended their season on an 11-game losing streak.
To make the loss even more sour, the Badgers allowed the Wildcats to shoot over 52.6 percent, the second game in a row in which Wisconsin let its opponent shoot over 50 percent from the field. In the second half, Northwestern shot an outstanding 66.7 percent to put the Badgers away.
