The Wisconsin Badgers beat the SIUE Cougars 94-69 on Monday, marking the third time this season that they eclipsed the 90-point mark, while blowing out their opponent once again to start the year 4-0.
It was a slower start from the Badgers, but they heated up as the threes started to fall, and a second-half run proved to be the difference maker in the win.
Here’s our recap of Wisconsin’s win over SIUE on Monday.
1st Half
John Blackwell was the first Badger to score, hitting a contested three right over Cougar guard Jordan Pickett. Blackwell went on to score 8 of the first 13 Badgers’ points, including two threes.
SIUE did not stay quiet, however, as star Ring Malith had a couple of tough buckets early to give the Cougars some early momentum.
With the Badgers up 10-8, Jack Janiciki took a three early in the shot clock, and the long board went straight to Malith, who hit the outlet Myles Thompson for an and-one bucket. Just after that, the Cougars took a 13-10 lead, which they held seven minutes into the game.
At that point, the Badgers were shooting 1 of 8 from deep, unable to really generate offense, but that did not last. Wisconsin went on to hit four threes and turned things around, going up 22 to 15 on the Cougars with 10 minutes to go in the half. In that stretch, Andrew Rohde, Austin Rapp, John Blackwell, and Nick Boyd all hit a three, making up for the slow start earlier in the game.
With 7:35 left in the first half, Boyd was putting on a show with two threes and 10 points of the Badgers’ 31. The Badgers and Cougars continued to go back and forth in the latter part of the first. SIUE guard Jordan Pickett was especially important, putting up 12 points in the half and carrying most of the scoring load with Myles Thompson, due to fouls keeping Ring Malith out of the game.
With the Badgers up 36-26, Blackwell came back into the attack, getting to his spots and getting to the line. Blackwell scored 8 straight for Wisconsin with a three, two jumpers, and a free throw, but Cougar guards Jo Valerie and Jordan Pickett didn’t stay quiet.
Valerie hit a tough contested step back three over Nolan Winter, and Pickett hit both a pull-up jumper and a side step three-pointer to cut the lead to 3. The Badgers, who seemed to have all the momentum, were a little struck by the response from SIUE, and it showed.
The Cougars kept it close at halftime, going into the locker room down 48-41.
Wisconsin’s top scorers were Blackwell and Boyd with 16 and 10 points, respectively. The three-point shooting dictated the Badgers’ first half. They started the game 1/8, then hit five of their next six to go 5/14, and ultimately ended the half 8/21 from deep.
2nd Half
Wisconsin came out of the locker room in the second half with all cylinders firing. The Badgers went on a 16-0 run early in the period that really stretched the game out for the rest of the way. Austin Rapp had seven in the stretch, while Nick Boyd had five of his own.
The offensive attack for the Badgers was combined with a relentless defense, getting up in the face of ball-handlers and forcing SIUE into bad shots late in the shot clock. Wisconsin, specifically Nolan Winter, did a great job of boxing out on the defensive end and not letting the Cougars get any second-chance points early.
In the Badgers run, they drew a total of 5 fouls and forced Malith back to the bench early with 4 fouls in the game. Wisconsin’s ability to generate fouls and get to the free-throw line was very important for them on their long scoring stretch, but what was more impressive was their rotations defensively. Wisconsin did a great job on their rotations, not leaving anyone open and closing out on all shooters quickly.
Following the big run, Blackwell took control of the game once again, hitting a clutch stepback three and following that with two free throws and another three. Blackwell finished the game with 24 points on 5 of 6 from three and 7/7 on free throws. Blackwell’s ability to shoot the three was on full display, but the ability to also get to the foul line kept the Cougars honest while guarding him. Boyd also dropped in 22 points, going 4 of 7 from three, but also contributed five timely assists, one of which was an alley-oop to Nolan Winter and another to Austin Rapp.
SIUE tried to regain some momentum with back-to-back threes from Valerie and Darrion Baker, but with a lead of 19, the Badgers ran away with this game before the 10-minute mark of the 2nd half. Wisconsin’s ability to get quick bursts of a high volume of points has been a key strength for them to start this season.
With the game out of reach, the Badgers continued pouring it on from deep and connecting. Wisconsin went 7 of 18 in the second half to finish the game with a total of 15 threes in the game. John Blackwell and Nick Boyd went a combined 9 of 13 from deep and really controlled the tempo and scoring for the Badgers during the entire game.
In addition to their backcourt, Austin Rapp had up 15 points on 3 of 9 shooting from deep and three blocks as well. After a slow start, Nolan Winter also picked up the pace, attacking the boards both offensively and defensively. Freshman big man Aleksas Bieliauskas also put up an efficient 8 points on 4 of 6 shooting, mostly eating off the second chance boards and getting great positioning in the paint.
The Badgers took the game 94-69, just missing out on the 25.5 spread. While the Badgers offense continued to shine, putting up yet another 90+ point game, their defense had spurts where they did not seem in sync early, specifically in the paint.
In the end, the Badgers played a strong second half to put this game away, outscoring SIUE 48 to 26. Wisconsin now looks ahead to Friday as it takes on No. 9 BYU for a top-25 matchup showdown.
