The height, length and aggressiveness of the Badgers were too much to overcome for the visiting Prairie View A&M Panthers Sunday night at the Kohl Center for the Wisconsin men's basketball team's season opener, as the No. 24 Badgers handed A&M a 99-55 thumping.
Wisconsin out rebounded the Panthers 51 to 16, with 24 of those coming on the offensive glass. Prairie View A&M head coach Byron Rimm admitted it was his team's lack of confidence and Wisconsin's tenacity on the boards that dug them into a deep hole late in the first and early in the second half.
""We didn't rebound,"" Rimm said. ""It's kind of hard for us to compete with 6'10"", 6'9"", 6'8"" players that were out there hustling, and I really think we got out-hustled today.""
Senior forward Jon Leuer led all players with 24 points on nine of 13 shooting but the story of the night came in the form of freshman guard Josh Gasser who started his college career with a bang putting up 21 points in 26 minutes and adding nine rebounds and three assists to his stat-line.
Gasser's 21 point debut ranks second all-time in UW history, and his teammates are excited by the versatility the freshman showed in his first game.
""Talk about a good debut, I mean that's about as good as it gets,"" Leuer said. ""To have another guy that can step up and do that-that's great, and we're looking for guys all over than can do that.""
After only leading by 10 going into the half, the Badgers picked up the pace to start the second and went on a 21-8 run to increase their lead to 23 with nearly 13 minutes left.
The players seemed to settle into their sets and also found their shooting stroke in the process hitting 9nine of their first 12 in the first five minutes of the second half.
""I think shots started falling a little more in the second half but we played with a higher energy level too in the second half,"" junior guard Jordan Taylor said. ""We were a little flat in the first half second half we just came out and pushed the ball, played better defense and it translated into easy baskets.""
Taylor logged the most minutes out of any Badger playing 31 minutes and adding 20 points and six assists, while shooting 50 percent from the field. Teammate Mike Bruesewitz chipped in 11 points including a flurry of back-to-back three's early in the second half to jump start the Badger‘s route of the Panthers. Wisconsin's 99 points also ranks second all-time only to the 1995-'96 Badgers' who put up 105 points in a single game.
Players were well-aware of the feat accomplished by the football team over the weekend as they put up 83 points in a win over Indiana. Although Leuer and company played for the win, they accepted the scoring challenge their fellow athletes posed.
""It was great to see that— the way they dominated like that,"" Leuer said. ""But we couldn't get shown up by those guys.""
