After seeing its perfect start to the season muddied by two consecutive losses, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team got back on track Wednesday night.
Despite another weak first-half showing, the Badgers (7-2) shot 57.7 percent from the floor in the second half of a 70-42 win over UW-Green Bay (4-5) at the Kohl Center. Point guard Jordan Taylor led all scorers with 15 points and added a career-high 10 assists, while forward Ryan Evans scored 14 points and forward/center Jared Berggren contributed 13.
The victory comes four days after Wisconsin had its 23-game home win streak snapped by another in-state rival, the No. 16 Marquette Golden Eagles, in a 61-54 loss. Three days prior to that, the Badgers fell on the road to the then-No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels 60-57. Both games, especially the UNC one, saw UW play inspired basketball at times, though the complete efforts ultimately were not enough to pull out wins.
“You should be on a mission every night,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “I don’t try to get guys more revved up for one game than another. Bright young men figure out that every contest is pretty important, every possession is. There wasn’t anything different in what we were doing.”
Initially, it appeared the Badgers would be in for another battle at home, as UW shot just 12-for-33 (36.4 percent) from the field in the first half. After a layup by guard/forward Rob Wilson (five points, two blocks) put Wisconsin ahead 8-2 at the 15:31 mark, the Badgers went scoreless for the next four minutes. When Green Bay guard Steve Baker drew a foul on a layup and converted the and-one attempt to bring the score to 12-11 with 10:20 left in the first half, the Phoenix came as close as they would all game. From that point until halftime, UW built a 21-10 run that had the Badgers leading 33-21 at the break.
“We played a good team on a mission tonight,” UW-GB head coach Brian Wardle said. “We knew right off the bat that Wisconsin was coming out.”
The first half was especially successful for Wisconsin’s bench, which scored 14 points to Green Bay’s seven. For the game, UW’s bench players outscored UW-GB’s 21-16, led by guard Ben Brust’s six points. Freshman guard Traevon Jackson and freshman forward Frank Kaminsky each scored four points in 11 and 14 minutes of playing time, respectively.
The second half unfolded much more smoothly for the Badgers, who outscored the Phoenix 19-8 in the first 10 minutes out of halftime. Taylor led a UW offense that seemed to get to the basket more than did in the first half – and overall, more than it had in the past two games. The senior point guard converted four of his six free throw attempts, but Wisconsin still struggled as a team to make its free throws – a still-troubling sign for a team that made 81.8 percent of its tries last season and nearly broke the NCAA record of 82.2 percent. The Badgers finished the game 13-for-19 from the charity stripe, just 68.4 percent.
Nevertheless, Taylor and the Badgers took solace in the fact they recorded 16 assists to just six turnovers – a solid 2.66 assist-to-turnover ratio – and forced the Phoenix into 16 turnovers.
“I don’t think I would say [we’re] settling, but just trying to make good decisions every time down the court and get the best shot,” Taylor said. “Shots aren’t falling for some guys right now, but we’ll keep working, keep getting better every day and that’ll come.”
With the game clearly in hand, Wisconsin’s lead blossomed to its largest at 28 points, 68-40, with 2:14 remaining in the game.
Green Bay was led by 7-foot-1, 215-pound center Alec Brown with 10 points. Brown pulled down just four rebounds, well short of his 7.5 per game average. Forwards Brennan Cougill and Daniel Turner each scored six points, while Cougill led the Phoenix with eight rebounds (five offensive).
“That was definitely an emphasis of ours in practice the last few days,” Berggren said of limiting Brown. “We knew he’s a good player; if he catches it inside, it’s not good for us. So we just tried to focus on keeping the ball out of his hands, working to front him, force them to throw some lobs over the top and have some backside help.”
