If there were any concerns remaining about Sam Dekker’s lingering ankle injury going into Wednesday night’s game in Milwaukee, they were to put to rest by the junior forward’s outstanding performance.
Dekker scored 17 points on 7-10 shooting and senior forward Frank Kaminsky led all scorers with 18 points as No. 5 Wisconsin (9-1) defeated the Milwaukee Panthers (4-6) 93-54.
Dekker’s ankle has been an issue all season long, but he had a couple huge dunks and looked at full strength for the first time all year. He scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half on 6-7 shooting.
As a team, the Badgers shot 60.9 percent from the field, marking the first time they’ve finished over 60 percent on the road under head coach Bo Ryan.
Sophomore forward Nigel Hayes added 13 points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds as well for Wisconsin. In total, the UW starting frontcourt scored 48 of the team’s 93 points.
The Badgers also got 31 points from their bench, led by sophomore guard Bronson Koenig’s five. Overall, 10 different players scored on the night for Wisconsin.
While UW found great success on offense, the Panthers struggled to get much of anything going, making just 34.6 percent of their shots. Junior forward Matt Tiby was the only Milwaukee player to reach double-digit scoring, finishing the night with a season-high 17 points.
Wisconsin turned the ball over just four times during the game while also scoring 22 of its points off the Panthers’ 14 turnovers.
With the win, the Badgers won their 22nd straight meeting against the Panthers and improved to 31-1 all-time against Milwaukee. The victory also marked the sixth time in Ryan’s 14 years at Wisconsin that the Badgers have defeated all three of their in-state rivals (Milwaukee, Marquette and Green Bay) in the same season.
Ryan moved to 14-0 against Milwaukee, the school he coached at for two seasons before coming to Madison. The Panthers’ current coach, Rob Jeter, won a national championship as a player at UW-Platteville, where Ryan was coaching at the time. Jeter would also go on to spend 10 years as an assistant under Ryan at both Platteville and Milwaukee.
The Badgers will next play Saturday, when they host the Nicholls State Colonels at 2 p.m. at the Kohl Center.
