Behind a stellar performance by senior forward Frank Kaminsky, No. 3 Wisconsin cruised to a 78-54 victory over Boise State Saturday night.
The Badgers (4-0) shot 55.4 percent from the field, their third straight game over 50 percent, and held the Broncos (3-1) to a 42.9 field-goal percentage in the first-ever meeting between these two programs.
Kaminsky led all scorers with 26 points on 11-for-13 shooting, and also finished with five rebounds, three blocks and two steals. His 84.6 field-goal percentage was a career high for any game in which he had at least 10 shot attempts, including last year against North Dakota. In the first half alone, Kaminsky made all seven of his shots and scored 17 points.
“(Kaminsky) is so impressive,” Boise State head coach Leon Rice said. “His stroke is just so pure that you can’t give him an open look. He can go into the post, he can spin back; he can just score in so many different ways.”
“But all that being said, I think it’s his intellect that impresses me so much.”
The senior also went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc and has now scored at least 15 points in each of UW’s first four games.
“I was getting some open looks. My teammates were doing a good job of finding me on some 3s. I was able to get some stuff to the rim so it was just going well,” Kaminsky said. “It was just one of those nights where everything feels good and the ball is just going in.”
Boise State only trailed 22-18 at the 5:11 mark in the first half, but the Badgers used a 16-6 run to take a 14-point lead into the locker room.
The Broncos only got seven points from their star player, Anthony Drmic, who went just 3-of-10 from the floor. Drmic entered the game averaging 20.7 points per game and boasted a 50 percent shooting percentage.
“(Drmic) is a good player, and fortunately he didn’t go off on us,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “Anytime you can hold that guy to 3-for-10, that’s a good day for our defense.”
Senior guard Derrick Mark led Boise State with a season-high 16 points, and junior guard Mikey Thompson chipped in 10 points as well.
Sophomore forward Nigel Hayes had 15 points and pulled in five rebounds for the Badgers, and senior guard Traevon Jackson scored 11 points and dished out five assists. Hayes, who made just 58.5 percent of his free throws last season, was 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.
As a team, Wisconsin committed a season-low five turnovers, its fewest in a game since turning the ball over just three times against Indiana in late February last season.
(Wisconsin) is a heck of a basketball team,” Rice said. “Just the way they play, I’m looking around here to find a weakness, and I’m not sure I can find anything.”
“There’s a lot of teams that are ranked high to start the season, and they’re ranked high on potential, but I said, this is not one of those.”
The Badgers will head to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis, which they’ll kick off Wednesday against UAB.
