While the temperatures outside the Kohl Center may have been hovering around zero, the shooting of Wisconsin’s big men inside the arena was much, much hotter. On the backs of 3 double digit scoring efforts from the front court, UW was able to notch a 70-56 win over Green Bay and head into the finals break with a sweep of all three in-state rivals.
Senior forward Jon Leuer once again led the scoring with 22 points, but it was the performance put in by sophomore Mike Bruesewitz that captured the attention of the meager Kohl Center crowd. On the strength of 6-8 shooting (2-4 from 3-point range), Bruesewitz notched a career-high 18 points to go along with 4 rebounds and a block.
“ I think the difference between Mike his freshman year and now is that he feels so confident in what he is doing now,” senior forward Keaton Nankivil said. “All summer, he was one of the toughest match-ups day-in and day-out with the number of things he can do and how hard he plays. I think all of the guys on the team knew what he was capable of.”
Coming off a solid offensive performance of his own on Saturday, Nankivil continued to shoot the ball well, hitting 4-5 three’s and finishing the night with a season-high 16 points and 6 rebounds.
“Any time we can get good production and get things going like Mike and Keaton did tonight, it’s just another dimension for our team,” Leuer said. “Multiple guys scoring in double figures, four tonight, that just puts pressure on the defense {…}We’re a pretty dynamic team when we have all of these good parts working.”
While much of the 2nd half was played with Wisconsin holding a double-digit lead, this game was anything but a blowout in the early going. Although the Badgers shot the ball well from the onset, the Phoenix matched them through the first 9 minutes, taking a 13-12 lead with 10:53 left in the first half before Jon Leuer’s free throws just 24 seconds later put Wisconsin ahead for good.
Like they have done in many recent games, the Badgers didn’t look back upon taking the lead, finishing the first half on a 21-8 run to take a 12-point lead into the half.
“I thought in the first half we had a five-minute span that really cost us the game,” Green Bay head coach Brian Wardle said. “I thought the last five minutes in the first half, where we broke down defensively and we took a few bad shots, killed our rhythm and now we’re down 11 or 12.”
From there, Wisconsin grew the lead to 18 early in the second half as the offense continued to work the ball inside-out and in turn get UW open looks time after time.
“Usually you’re working with a lead trying to get to the free throw line, or make people pay by being aggressive,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “We did it sometimes, we didn’t do it all the time, but our points per possession were pretty good, we got to the line and for the most part we hit them. Our 3-point shot selection was excellent.”
Now sitting at 9-2, the Badgers will take a nine-day break for finals before finishing out the non-conference slate next Thursday against Coppin State. Beyond the Eagles, Big Ten play is now just two weeks away with this season’s sole date with Minnesota set for December 28.
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