It won’t erase the memory of Friday’s stunning loss to Western Illinois, but Wisconsin’s dominating 92-65 win over Siena (0-2) Sunday night should have fans feeling a little better about the prospects of this young Badgers team moving forward.
Junior guard Bronson Koenig and junior forward Vitto Brown each finished with career highs in points, scoring 23 and 16, respectively.
Brown also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds and seemed to build off of the end of the Western Illinois game, where he scored eight points in the second half.
“[Brown] seemed a little more focused. He was a little more under control. That’s what he’s gonna have to do. Sometimes he just gets sped up and struggles,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “Just go the speed limit. He thinks that because they raised it to 70 on some of these highways that he’s gotta go faster at times. Stay at 65.”
Junior forward Nigel Hayes added 14 points as well for the Badgers (1-1), who once again suffered through their fair share of struggles in the early stages of the game.
Though Wisconsin jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead to start, the Saints fought back and held the lead midway through the first half. Siena started out 7-of-11 from the field and only trailed 20-18 with 9:27 to play in the half, but from there it was all Badgers.
Wisconsin proceeded to go on a 23-10 run to finish the half, which ended with an emphatic putback dunk from redshirt junior guard Zak Showalter off a missed 3-pointer by Koenig in the closing seconds of the half.
Unlike Friday night, the Badgers came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders, putting together a 10-0 run in the first 3:05 of the second half.
They never slowed down from there, continuing to extend their lead and never allowing Siena to have the opportunity to get within striking range and making a run at pulling off a second consecutive upset at the Kohl Center.
It was a solid bounce-back win for the Badgers after Friday’s shocking loss, something that didn’t come as a surprise to Siena head coach Jimmy Patsos.
“I sensed trouble brewing Friday night about two minutes after the loss to Western Illinois,” Patsos said. “Bo Ryan’s teams are too good. They’re going to do that once a year maybe.”
For the players, being able to get back on the court just a couple of days after the season-opening loss was a major positive.
“One of the first thoughts that went through my head after that game was ‘thank god we have another game in two days to prove ourselves,’” Showalter said. “Obviously that was pretty embarrassing, but we know what we’ve got and what we’re capable of and I think we responded pretty well.”
The Badgers improved from Friday night in just about every facet of the game. They went 25-0f-30 from the free throw line after going 16-25 in their regular-season opener, while also shooting 58.5 percent from the field, including 41.7 percent from 3-point range.
Siena, on the other hand, struggled mightily on offense after its hot start. The Saints shot just 39.3 percent overall, including a dismal 18.8 percent from beyond the arc. They also didn’t have much success in quickening the tempo of the game, which Patsos attributed at least in part to Wisconsin’s deliberate style of play.
“When we don’t run, we’re not so good, and that really hurt us,” Patsos said. “You look up tempo in the dictionary, you see Bo Ryan’s picture. That starts playing right into their hands.”
