Badgers Basketball Makes Quick Work of Bengals, 78-44

It was cold outside of the Kohl Center, but it was also pretty cold for the visiting Bengals of Idaho State as the No. 17 Wisconsin Badgers cruised to a 78-44 victory.

The Bengals couldn’t buy a bucket for most of the first half and had just six made field goals (6-21) in the opening 20 minutes of the half to tell the whole story for this game. Wisconsin used suffocating defense and just enough offense to be comfortably ahead, 35-16, at the half and never looked back.

Star sophomore forward Ethan Happ had himself a field day down low against Idaho State’s zone, scoring 12 points and nearly putting together a double-double thanks to 10 points and six of his 12 rebounds in the first half alone.

He had help in easing to victory from the other parts of the tremendous trio — with Bronson Koenig hitting a game-high 21 points and Nigel Hayes chipping in 11 points on 4 of 7 shooting from the field.

While the stat line for senior guard Zak Showalter won’t show it, he had perhaps the most impressive all-around game. Showalter kept Idaho State’s leading scorer, Ethan Telfair, in complete check. The 5-11 guard came in to the game averaging 19.8 points per game, but had just two on 1 of 9 shooting on Wednesday night.

Idaho State was worked over on the boards and by UW’s defense in general. Wisconsin held a 47-21 advantage on the boards and turned 17 Bengals turnovers in to 23 points.

As Happ went for his fourth double-double of the season, his play around the basket helped UW to a ridiculous 44-14 advantage in points in the paint. It didn’t help Idaho State much that 7-foot big man Novac Topalovic spent the night in foul trouble and played just 21 minutes as a result.

Things were so far out of hand that it was largely bench players seeing the court over the final 13 or so minutes, with starters sprinkled in to keep the game flowing at times.

Observations:

• It is hard to take much away from a game like this given the disparity in talent. However, Wisconsin seemed to struggle against the zone that the Bengals put together. It is worth noting as UW didn’t struggle against either Georgetown or Syracuse who employed similar 2-3 zone schemes against Wisconsin. UW shot just 6 of 20 from three-point range, and it appears a pattern is forming that isn’t good news for Wisconsin heading in to Big Ten play.
• Ethan Happ nabbed five of his 12 rebounds in the first four minutes of this game. It was the tone that needed to be set, as Wisconsin made sure Idaho State didn’t get a second bite of the apple all that often. The Bengals had just two second chance points on the night.
• Wisconsin better figure out its free throw shooting issues. It was brutal tonight, as UW shot just 54.5 percent (12 of 22) from the charity stripe. Most of the bad stuff came from the two guys Wisconsin needs to be good from the line — Ethan Happ and Nigel Hayes. The two combined to go just 5 of 13 from the line. Wisconsin is just 12th in the Big Ten, hitting on .677 percent of its free throws, with only Michigan State and Ohio State worse than UW entering Wednesday night.

Player Grades:

Up Next:

Wisconsin travels East on 1-94 to take on in-state rival Marquette on Saturday. Tip is scheduled for 1p.m. CT with the game televised on FS1.