Wisconsin’s season has been a roller coaster, but on Saturday the Badgers’ return to the Kohl Center seemed to continue the confidence gained from a big road win earlier in the week. UW used a balanced team effort to take down the Temple Owls 76-60.
After struggling for nearly the entire season so far, star forward Nigel Hayes backed up a solid effort on Wednesday with another double double in this one. He led all scorers with 18 points, also grabbing 12 rebounds and a team-high three assists in the win.
While the offensive effort was balanced, the Badgers defense buckled down on Temple’s leading scorer Quenton DeCorsey as well. He was held to just three points on 1 of 6 shooting and picked up three fouls to add to his troubled day from the field.
UW and Temple had major issues scoring early in the contest, with UW holding a 31 to 22 percent field goal advantage nearly halfway through the first half. However, the Badgers got a huge lift from the bench and it sped away to a huge lead because of it.
A true team effort gave the Badgers an 11-point lead at the half, 37-26. Wisconsin saw six players tie for the team lead with six points each in the first half (Happ, Hayes, Illikainen, Koenig, Showalter and Thomas).
It was that team effort that sparked a huge run midway through the half though, as the Badgers used a 19-4 run to get to a 30-16 lead on the backs of great efforts from the freshman trio of Ethan Happ, Alex Illikainen, and Charlie Thomas.
Those three combined for 18 of the Badgers 37 points in the first half, and ended the game with 24 points.
It was even more important to see Illikainen and Thomas contribute offensively off the bench, as UW got just one point from the entire bench in it’s mid-week win over Syracuse. This time the bench came through with 13 points on the day to help spark the victory.
A big factor in the win came as Temple’s leading scorer Quenton DeCosey got in to early foul trouble and had to sit for most of the first half. He was held to just three points on 1 of 3 shooting before heading to the bench for the majority of the first half.
Wisconsin started off fast in the return from intermission, but cooled for a small period and allowed the Owls a glimmer of hope. Temple took advantage of it, going on a 6-0 run to pull within five points.
It wasn’t to last long, as the Badgers responded with 13-0 run of its own to retake full control of the game at 52-34 with 13:27 to play in the game.
From there on it was cruise control for the Badgers, who maintained a double digit lead the rest of the way.
Most impressive was watching the Badgers defense continue to work hard despite the commanding lead late in the second half. UW held Temple to just 38 percent shooting in the second half, while outrebounding the Owls 28-23.
Wisconsin will begin its slate of games against in-state foes up next, taking on Milwaukee on Wednesday and their I-94 rivals, Marquette, on Saturday.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
