The No. 15 Wisconsin men's basketball team (1-0) took on the Kennesaw State Fighting Owls (0-1) Saturday in the first ever meeting between the two teams. After handling UW-Stevens Point in its one and only exhibition game 80-54, Wisconsin continued its winning ways in its first regular season tussle of the year.
The Badgers played soundly on both ends of the court and ran the Owls out of the gym to the tune of an 85-31 drubbing.
Early in the game it was clear that Saturday's game was not going to go their way, despite Spencer Dixon banking in the first shot of the ball game to put the Owls up 3-0. Any hopes Kennesaw State had of winning the game were dashed by a 16-0 run by Wisconsin that included two threes by junior Mike Bruesewitz that gave the team the early lead they would not relinquish.
The Badgers defense, however, had a lot to do with this sound victory, playing great team defense and relegating Kennesaw State to contested jump shots most of the first half as the Owls shot a paltry 13 percent from the field, only making three of their first 23 shots and scoring only eight points in the process.
It was the exact opposite for the Badgers offense. They came out firing on all cylinders. UW shot 54 percent from the field in the first half, with a variety of Badgers combining to shoot seven-out-of-12 from beyond the arc. The tune continued into the second half as the Badgers ended the game shooting 15-25 from three and shooting 59 percent from the field.
The secret to the Badgers' success on offense was making the unselfish passes that allowed Wisconsin players to constantly shoot and make open shots, especially three-pointers. This was evident as the Badgers had assists on 23 of their 30 made baskets.
The Badgers also dominated the battle of the boards, out-rebounding the Owls 41-20.
Leading the way for the Badgers offense were sophomore guard Josh Gasser and freshman guard Ben Brust, each scoring 14 points.
Gasser, who also had four rebounds and assists, was unconscious shooting the ball, going four-for-four from three and made both of his free throw attempts. Brust was a spark plug off the bench, playing well at both ends of the court. Brust was active on defense and stellar on offense, hitting three after three including finishing five-for-11 from the field and four of eight from downtown.
With this game being a blowout, head coach Bo Ryan was able to sub-in a variety of players. Normally this type of substituting throws off a team's chemistry and leads to sloppy play. This was not the case however, as five different Wisconsin players scored in double figures and ten different Badgers put up points in the box score.
"I thought all the gears were pretty much meshing no matter who was on the court," Ryan said. "And that's a good sign."
This balanced scoring is definitely a great sign for a Wisconsin basketball team that, with the loss of Jon Leuer, Keaton Nankivil and Tm Jarmusz, had faced questions all off-season about who else besides preseason all-American Jordan Taylor was going to be able put the ball in the basket.
The Badgers next game is Wednesday night at the Kohl Center against the Colgate Raiders of the Patriot League, who won their first game of the year, defeating the Binghamton Bearcats of the American East, 78-74.
