Friday’s nightmare for junior point guard Bronson Koenig turned in to the ultimate Sunday Funday, as Koenig put the past behind him and lifted the Badgers to a 74-73 victory with a last second game-winning layup.
The junior point guard carried the Badgers in the first half, scoring 16 points before halftime. However, it was the final two points of his 22-point day that made all the difference.
After being targeted by VCU’s defense, he broke through and hit a game-winning layup with eight seconds left to give UW it’s third victory on the season.
It was just the last in a long line of crazy in this close ballgame. That’s because it appeared the entire Badgers team was ready to put Friday’s performance in the rear-view mirror, going up by as many as 11 points three times in the first half.
However, the defense didn’t come along, leading to VCU holding a 43-37 halftime lead over the Badgers.
Unlike Friday, Wisconsin’s offense was the savior in this one, rebounding from a 31.7 percent effort against Georgetown and hitting 53.1 percent in this matchup.
Koenig’s 22-point day was important, but so was the fact that Wisconsin had four of five starters reach double figures. Freshman forward Ethan Happ was next on the scoring list with 12 points, and they were joined by juniors Nigel Hayes and Zak Showalter with 10 points each.
Wisconsin came out of the locker room with the same vigor it had to start the game, but VCU matched the effort and it was a constant battle to get within that critical one-possession game for the first five minutes of the second half.
However, VCU could never pull completely away and never led by more than six points in the second half either.
After four minutes of back-and-forth battling, Wisconsin settled down on the defensive end and the score began to whittle away from the Rams’ grasp. UW took its first lead of the second half at 51-50 with a layup by Koenig with 14 minutes left to play in the game.
Wisconsin went on to open up a 69-63 lead with just over five minutes to play, reversing the trend that took place in the earlier part of the half.
VCU just had enough to answer and re-took the lead at 73-72 on a Melvin Johnson jumper with 32 seconds left to play.
That’s when Koenig stepped up in a major way after a quiet half from the field.
Despite Koenig’s high scoring output, the Badgers were going to trust the final shot to the still struggling Hayes.
“We were looking for Nigel inside,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. “He had made some plays, a two-shot foul and a couple good dishes from the post. When he gets it down there, he’s pretty effective with the ball, not just for the scorer but for the actions he can get out of it. He’s a very good passer from there and he knows how to get to the line.”
Instead, Koenig took matters in to his own hands and won it. That was probably a good thing, as Hayes wasn’t much of a player in Wisconsin’s offense on the day, taking just five shots and hitting an uncharacteristically low 50 percent from the free throw line (5-10).
With a young team learning by the minute, a win of any stripe is a good day. However, don’t expect this team to dwell on this one too long.
Wisconsin won’t have much time off, as it will take on Prairie View A&M on Nov. 25 at the Kohl Center. Tip is scheduled for 7p.m. and the game will be televised on BTN.
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