Northwestern, which entered play Saturday as the last place team in the Big Ten, picked a bad time to come to the Kohl Center to take on No. 5 Wisconsin, which had won five games in-a-row and four of those by double figures.
From start to finish, the Badgers (21-2, 9-1 Big Ten) controlled the Wildcats (10-13, 1-9) Saturday afternoon behind a career-high 16 points from sophomore Bronson Koenig and another game-high 16 points from junior Sam Dekker, as Wisconsin won its sixth straight game, dropping Northwestern 65-50.
The Badgers started the game on a 23-6 run by attacking Northwestern’s 2-3 zone. Dekker alone outscored the Wildcats, scoring nine points over the first 12 minutes and three seconds of the game.
Northwestern trimmed the Wisconsin lead back down to single digits after an 11-2 run that pulled the Wildcats to within eight at 25-17. During the Wildcats’ run, the Badgers did not make a single field goal as they were in the midst of a three minute and 57 second scoring drought.
But after Northwestern got within single digits, the Badgers responded, going on a 12-4 run to take a 37-21 lead at halftime. Sophomore forward Nigel Hayes scored five straight points for Wisconsin to close out the half.
Wisconsin shot 41 percent (12-for-29) in the first half while the Wildcats were just 9-of-28 (32 percent) from the floor and 1-of-6 (16 percent) from three-point range. Dekker and Hayes both scored a game-high 11 points in the opening half while Hayes added six rebounds.
In the second half, Northwestern managed to outscore the Badgers, but it got within only 11 points after a three-pointer with just over a minute left in the game. Wisconsin held a lead of 20 or more points three times over the final 20 minutes despite Northwestern being able to slightly crawl back into the game toward the final minutes.
Much like Tuesday’s game against Indiana, the Wildcats were able to rattle some scoring possessions that threatened to put Wisconsin’s lead below 10 points. But like Tuesday, the Badgers had no problem bouncing back to earn yet another double digit win.
“I don’t think we took our foot off the gas pedal,” Dekker said. “I thought we kept it going pretty good and ended up getting a 15-point win.”
The Badgers opened up their 16-point halftime lead courtesy of some hot shooting from beyond the arc. Five of Wisconsin’s first seven field goals to start the second half were threes with Koenig knocking home three of them.
Overall, Koenig was 6-for-10 from the floor and 4-for-8 from three-point distance. He added two assists and two rebounds with no turnovers in 29 minutes of action.
Since taking over for the injured Traevon Jackson, Koenig has scored in double figures in six of the last seven games, averaging 12.6 points per game in his seven career starts.
“I feel like I’ve been a lot more confident the past couple of weeks,” Koenig said. “My teammates have done a good job of giving me that confidence and my coaches as well. [Traevon Jackson]’s done a good job as well, just telling me to be aggressive as much as I can.”
Throughout Saturday’s game, when Northwestern was able to force the Badgers deep into the shot clock, Koenig seemed to knock down a clutch shot that would put an end to a strong defensive possession from Northwestern.
“He didn’t force any shots,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said of Koenig. “I thought he hit some big threes as we were moving the ball.
“He was a guy that hit some big ones for us. He didn’t panic out there, made good ball fakes, set up other guys. A lot of the time he made the pass that led to the pass for the basket.”
Wisconsin dominated the glass Saturday as well, out-rebounding Northwestern 39-25 overall and 13-5 on offensive rebounds. The Badgers turned those 13 offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points as the Wildcats struggled to rebound while in their zone defense.
Northwestern outshot Wisconsin overall, making 39.6 percent of its shots while Wisconsin made 38.9 percent. Northwestern had only two players – Alex Olah (15) and Bryant McIntosh (13) – score in double figures while the Badgers had two players, in addition to Koenig and Dekker, in double figures. Frank Kaminsky had 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Hayes finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.
Senior guard Josh Gasser made his 127th career start Saturday, passing Alando Tucker for the most starts in Wisconsin program history. Gasser had eight points and a team-high nine rebounds for Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s 21-2 start to the season is tied for the best 23-game start in program history with the 1914 team that started with the same record.
The Badgers return to the court Tuesday when they travel to Nebraska to take on the Cornhuskers. Tip is scheduled for 8 p.m. on ESPN.
