University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team took down the Coppin State Eagles without any trouble to open up the 2018-19 season Tuesday night.
Wisconsin put up 85 points on Coppin State while holding them to just 63.
Forward Ethan Happ led the way for the Badgers with his first career triple-double, putting up 10 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists.
Happ even had four blocks on the defensive side of the ball, making for an all-around stellar performance out of the redshirt senior. Happ’s triple-double was only the second in school history, with the only other Badger to record one being Josh Gasser in 2011.
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“We wanted to take away Ethan Happ’s post up, but he did a really good job of distributing the ball,” Coppin State Head Coach Juan Dixon said.
Coppin State did just that, however Ethan Happ has more in his toolbox than just post up moves. He was able to find open shooters who connected all night long.
Point guard D’Mitrik Trice led all scorers with 21 points off of 7-13 shooting while making five of his nine three-point attempts.
Guard Brevin Pritzl finished with 16 points while connecting on four of his seven three-point attempts.
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Forward Nathan Reuvers hit two three-pointers and Brad Davison joined with one of his own.
The Badgers found themselves down early to the Coppin State Eagles 11-6 after a pair of three-pointers by forwards Chad Andrews-Fulton and Lamar Morgan.
But it did not take long for the Badgers to find themselves defensively as they held Coppin State to an offensive drought for a 10 minute, 19 second stretch during the first half.
Wisconsin also went on a 39-6 run over a 15 minute stretch during the first half in response to a five-point deficit.
The surge of first-half scoring was led by Trice who went 5-6 on three-point field goals totaling 17 points in the first half, while Pritzl was perfect from behind the three-point line, connecting on all three of his attempts in the first half.
Morgan was the driving force for Coppin State finishing with 15 points off of 4-8 shooting from the three-point line, but it was not nearly enough to hang around with the Badgers. The only thing that seemed to be working for Coppin State tonight was the three-point shot as they nailed 11 of their 29 attempts.
Overall it was back to some old-school Wisconsin Basketball.
The Badgers took care of the ball very well, only turning over the rock a total of five times while tallying 17 assists.
Wisconsin also shot 23-26 from the free throw line while only fouling the Eagles 15 times.
The Badgers start off the season 1–0 and will begin preparation for their next game at Xavier Tuesday.
