After picking off Big Ten opponents one-by-one at the Kohl Center over the better part of the past decade, Wisconsin men's basketball has suddenly forgot how to dominate on their home turf. Already having lost at the Kohl Center three times this season (tied for most in the Bo Ryan era), the Badgers (3-3 Big Ten, 14-5 overall) nearly lost another, coming out flat and playing sloppy basketball for the better part of the game. But with the shooting struggles continuing for many Badgers, senior guard Jordan Taylor put the team on his back, scoring 19 points en route to the Badgers' ugly 50-45 victory over Nebraska.
"To get this kind of good thing playing the way we did on the offensive end," UW head coach Bo Ryan said. "That is a pretty good statement for us defensively."
As much as UW struggles to get shots to fall, the Cornhuskers did them one better. Nebraska (1-5 Big Ten, 9-8 overall) missed four point-blank layups in the first half, adding a few more in a second half that was even uglier than the first. In the end, Nebraska managed only to shoot 35% from the field on the afternoon, with senior guard Bo Spencer the only Husker in double-figures with a team-high 13 points on 5-of-16 shooting.
On the Badgers' end, their 11 first half turnovers (12 for the game) were a season-high and kept Nebraska close throughout the game. To make matters worse, Wisconsin was unable to make a shot over the last 7 minutes, 10 seconds of the game, finishing a measly 31% from the field and 11% from three-point range.
What made up for the poor shooting and the turnovers, at least a bit, was UW's ability to get penetration and create opportunities to go to the line. Wisconsin finished 18-of-24 from the line while Nebraska only managed to get to the line twice. Ultimately, that disparity, the result of penetration on the offensive end by the Badgers, was the difference in UW's five-point victory.
"They called the hand checks in the second half because we were making better cuts," Ryan said. "The game changed because we made it change."
Amidst the poor performances for Wisconsin, there were a few silver linings. In addition to the 19 points and 6 rebounds for Taylor, sophomore guard Josh Gasser finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds of his own. The two guards combined to go 8-for-19 (42%) from the field on Sunday, with the rest of the Badger lineup only managing to make 7 of their 29 shots (24%).
"Usually good things happen when we attack the line, attack the rim," Gasser said. "Whether its for {myself and Taylor} or for our teammates."
While he continued to struggle from the field (3-for-12), junior forward Jared Berggren was a force underneath. The Princeton, Minn. native finished with a career-high 13 rebounds (6 offensive) on Sunday, just a point short of what would have been his first career double-double.
"Jared had six offensive rebounds," Taylor noted. "Which is huge. Thats six extra opportunities for us at the basket."
Despite all of this, Wisconsin finds itself squarely in the Big Ten race. With Northwestern's victory Saturday over Michigan State, there are no teams left without a defeat in conference play, with the Spartans and Illinois the only remaining one-loss teams in the conference. Northwestern is next for the Badgers, set to visit Madison on Wednesday night. With UW poised to get over the .500 mark before heading to Champaign next weekend, you can bet that the next week will go a long way toward determining the Badgers' fate in a wide-open conference title race.
"Its a marathon," Taylor said of Big Ten play. "It is not a sprint."
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