In front of a hostile crowd of over 19,000 at the Bradley Center on Saturday, the Badgers finally notched that signature non-conference victory with a 69-64 win over Marquette.
While dominating performances from Jordan Taylor and Jon Leuer had fueled much of the 7-2 start, Saturday’s victory was very much a team effort. Though Leuer and Taylor still led the way with 17 and 16 points respectively, contributions from role players like Keaton Nankivil (12 points, 3 rebounds), Mike Bruesewitz (2 points, 8 rebounds), and Jared Berggren (8 points) got Wisconsin over the hump.
“In order to win games like this on the road against good teams, you have to have that kind of effort from other guys…” UW Head Coach Bo Ryan said after the game. “They’ve had opportunities and in this game they took advantage of them.”
Though the Badgers have taken care of business at the Kohl Center, Saturday’s win was the first on the road, countering what was sure to be criticism of their ability to win away from Madison heading into the Big Ten slate.
“They weren’t frazzled, you know, the great advantage was we played in Vegas in a possession-for-possession game,” Ryan said. “That’s how we walk away with this one today.”
Despite improved shooting from the Badgers, Marquette still out-shot UW by nearly 3%. The difference ultimately came down to Wisconsin’s domination on the offensive boards, allowing them to outscore the Golden Eagles 21-4 on 2nd chance opportunities.
With Marquette a team fully capable of getting on a scoring spurt, the 15 offensive rebounds were a huge part of UW’s ability to hold a lead (albeit barely) that burgeoned from 2 at the half to as much as 12 in the 2nd half before MU started their final run.
“That was huge for us,” senior forward Jon Leuer said. “Getting those 2nd chances and then we were able to bring it back out and run the clock.”
Though Marquette trailed the entire game after Keaton Nankivil’s 3-point bucket just over 5 minutes into the game, this was a battle for all 40 minutes.
Wisconsin held a 2-point lead at the half and was quickly able to take that lead to double digits, starting the half on a 21-11 run over the course of just under 9 minutes.
After holding that lead around the 10-point mark for the next five minutes, Marquette finally went on the run everyone in the Bradley Center knew they would make.
The Badgers only missed 3 free throws down the stretch, but the Golden Eagles capitalized on every one of those, going on an 14-5 run of their own to cut the lead to just two with less than ten seconds left.
Having already missed a crucial front end of a one-and-one earlier, Jordan Taylor hit the first free throw to give UW a 3-point cushion but missed the 2nd to give Marquette a chance.
At that point, Josh Gasser put an end to the madness, knocking a dribble off Marquette guard Dwight Buycks’ knee and giving Wisconsin the ball and in the minds of most in the crowd, the game.
“As a freshman, to make the kind of plays he does, it gives us a huge lift,” Leuer added. “He’s helped us out a lot and he’s going to continue to help us out.”
After Jordan Taylor added two more free throws, Marquette was out of time and Wisconsin was on their way back down I-94 with that signature win they’d come to Milwaukee to get.
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