After seeing its inside game outperformed in its last two contests, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team reestablished a presence in the paint Wednesday night that was hard for its opponents to apprehend.
It may not have been an all-around successful game down low for Wisconsin (7-2), which ended its two game slide in a 70-42 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay (4-5), but at times the Badger offense seemed to impose its will over the sizeable Phoenix.
Thirty-six of the Badgers’ points came from the paint, where the team saw plenty of finesse down low from several players, including point guard Jordan Taylor (15 points), forward Ryan Evans (14) and forward/center Jared Berggren (13).
Wisconsin started the night slow in the rebounding effort, losing by as much as 14-2 in that regard about midway through the first half. The Badgers spent the rest of the game cleaning up that dimension, however, finishing the night with 36 rebounds to Green Bay’s 37.
Forward Mike Bruesewitz led the charge on the glass for UW with eight rebounds, while Evans plucked away six more, as well.
Elsewhere, Wisconsin spent exactly one-third of its shots in the first half on three-pointers but saw little success (2-of-11), dragging the team’s shooting percentage down to .364. The misfires were compounded by the lack of rebounding, and the Badgers didn’t begin to really separate themselves from the Phoenix until the latter part of the first half.
Entering the second period with a 33-21 lead, Wisconsin maintained and built on a cushy lead by spending less time on three-pointers (6-of-26) and more time near the rim. That lead to a 57.7 clip in the half and raised the Badgers’ overall shooting percentage to .458 on the night.
Wisconsin converted 17.6 percent of its three-point attempts on the night, compared to a 54.5 success rate inside the arc.
“I guess that’s nice; you know, you can go out and still put up 70 points when you shoot not a very good (three-point) percentage,” Taylor, who also set a career-high with 10 assists, said. “We did a good job of touching Jared and Ryan down low, and they made some nice moves down there.”
“[We] got to the foul line, did a little better job of making free throws, still got to do a better job of taking advantage of that.”
The rim was, indeed, also better attacked. Prior to facing the Phoenix, the Badgers had averaged merely 10 free throws a game, but reached the line 19 times Wednesday night – only to score on 13 of those tries.
According to Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan, the shift in shot placement didn’t come by any mandated halftime adjustments. Rather, the Badgers just took what the Phoenix gave them in the second half.
“We didn’t really make any adjustments. We didn’t change what we were trying to do; we just did it a little bit better,” Ryan said. “We took advantage of some things in the second half, got better looks, but we didn’t change any philosophy.”
Success in the interior stretched to the defensive realm, as well. The Phoenix have struggled from outside all season (shooting 28 percent from three-point range prior to Wednesday night) and have had to rely on an inside presence as a result.
“We emphasize hitting the post; we want to get the ball inside to start games,” UW-GB head coach Brian Wardle said. “But obviously, we’ve got to be basketball players too and just see that the help is there and skip the ball, then maybe try and give it a second look. We talk a lot about second looks, … and we just didn’t do a good job of that tonight.”
Against the Badgers, the Phoenix scored 18 points below their season average and saw their most potent offensive threat, 7-foot-1 center Alec Brown, kept in check.
Brown entered the Kohl Center a 47.7 percent shooter and left after hitting 25 percent of his shots for 10 points.
With Berggren defending him most of the night and other teammates helping out, Brown found it difficult to get into a rhythm all night.
“I remember it was probably a poor decision to try to pass [inside],” Wardle said. “Wisconsin did a good job of helping from the weak side on Alec all night.”
