Bo Ryan warned us that there’d be days like these.
After seemingly rebounding from a season-opening loss to Western Illinois, the Badgers offense decided to go cold at a very inopportune time and against an inopportune opponent. As a result, Wisconsin fell to the Georgetown Hoyas 71-61 in the 2K Classic Semifinal at Madison Square Garden.
It didn’t take long to figure out the Badgers were in trouble in this game either.
Wisconsin went 6 minutes, 29 seconds before it got its first basket of the game (0 of 9 from the field), doing so as Vitto Brown missed a layup and Nigel Hayes slammed the rebound home.
The Hoyas were up just 6-2 though, and the Badgers had time to get back in the ballgame.
Hayes nearly did that on his own in the first half, scoring 11 of Wisconsin’s 22 points, while also grabbing three rebounds. At times he simply was the only offense he had, and it was in large part because Hayes stopped moonlighting as a jump-shooting expert. Instead, the Badgers big man took opponents to the hole and either finished or drew a foul in the process.
It was the Nigel Hayes we had all seen in the previous two seasons, and it couldn’t come at a moment too soon.
He finished with a game-high 22 points on 7 of 16 shooting with three rebounds and two assists. Unfortunately, all but one other player decided not to show up to help. Only redshirt freshman Ethan Happ was also in double figures, scoring 12 points on 3 of 8 shooting and a perfect 6 of 6 from the free throw line.
He also finished with a team-best 10 rebounds for his first career double-double.
Those were the highlights for the Badgers though, as UW finished the game shooting just 32.8 percent from the field (20-61) and just 5 of 19 from three-point range. Couple that with Georgetown having four players in double figures and a team shooting 50 percent from three-point range (9-18) and you have the recipe for a loss.
Just like the loss to Western Illinois, and much like Sam Dekker’s first season at Wisconsin, the Badgers offensive and defensive efforts seem linked together in a very negative way. Instead of positive defensive momentum spurring offense, an ineffective offensive day seems to drag the defensive effort down as well.
Wisconsin didn’t have an advantage on the stat sheet outside of getting to the free throw line at the half either, down 27-22 to the Hoyas.
HALFTIME STATS:
FG: UW 30%, Hoyas 36.7%
3pt FG: UW 1-10, Hoyas 5-12
FT: UW 3-5, Hoyas 0-0
Rebounds: Hoyas lead 24-18— talkingBadgers (@talkingBadgers) November 20, 2015
After Hayes picked up the Badgers in the first half, he opened things up nicely in the second as well. But, just like the first half, the rest of the team didn’t come along for the ride.
Fellow junior, guard Bronson Koenig, had a particularly off day in the loss. He finished with nine points, but shot just 2 of 13 from the field and killed numerous chances at the comeback effort by missing at key moments.
Hayes started off the half in the right frame of mind, pushing the score to within one possession right of the bat (27-24), but Wisconsin never got closer than a three-point deficit in the second half.
The Badgers failed to take advantage of a long stretch of Georgetown’s best player, D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, sat with four fouls. Instead, it allowed guards Isaac Copeland and Reggie Cameron to shoot a combined 7 of 10 from beyond the arc and it resulted in the Hoyas pushing a double-digit led before the halfway mark of the second half.
UW was down by nine as the final 10 minutes of the second half began, and it was a deficit that proved too much to overcome.
Wisconsin will take on the loser of the VCU/Duke matchup on Sunday in the 3rd place game of the 2K Classic at Madison Square Garden.
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