With a 67-59 win on the road against No. 8 Iowa Wednesday night, the Badgers all but locked up their spot in the NCAA Tournament for an 18th consecutive year.
To do so, they relied on major contributions from their supporting cast and a barrage of 3-pointers to get the job done.
Throughout Wisconsin’s remarkable turnaround over the last month and half, junior forward Nigel Hayes and redshirt freshman forward Ethan Happ have been the key cogs on offense most nights. And while they certainly weren’t nonexistent against Iowa—Hayes had 10 points, including a clutch 3-pointer that put UW up four with 1:42 left, and Happ finished with five points, six rebounds and three steals—the Badgers relied on the rest of their starting five and their bench to get the job done.
Junior guard Bronson Koenig led Wisconsin with 15 points, which itself isn’t overly surprising given that he’s the team’s second-leading scorer at 13.5 points per game. However, at times this season, Koenig has been prone to forcing up too many ill-advised, contested shots throughout the course of a game. But against Iowa, that wasn’t an issue for him.
Koenig went 4-of-6 from field, with all of those shots coming from 3-point range. For Koenig, that was the most efficient performance he’s had from behind the arc this season among all games in which he attempted at least five 3-pointers.
As a team, 3-point shooting has been pivotal during this 10-game stretch, and Wednesday night was shooting. The Badgers went 10-of-23 from 3-point range against the Hawkeyes, with six different players knocking one down from deep. Even freshman forward Charlie Thomas, who came into the game just 3-of-11 on threes this season, buried a triple.
Wisconsin’s sharpshooting proved to be especially crucial in negating a decided Iowa advantage in terms of offensive rebounding. The Hawkeyes went 18-of-25 from the charity stripe (UW was just 7-of-12) and held a dominating 20-8 advantage on the offensive glass, thanks in large part to senior center Adam Woodbury.
The 7-foot-1 behemoth was a force to be reckoned with in the post, grabbing more offensive rebounds (10) than defensive rebounds (8). However, Woodbury had just six points on 2-of-3 shooting and Iowa only held a 14-10 edge in second-chance points. Chances for easy putbacks for Woodbury were few and far between, and the Hawkeyes simply didn’t convert nearly often enough on their plethora of second-chance opportunities.
Offensively, the first half was mostly a success for Iowa. Fran McCaffery’s team came out with a clear objective of attempting to push the Badgers out of their comfort zone by playing uptempo and creating transition opportunities. Though the fast pace led to some sloppy play, including eight turnovers in the half, it also allowed them to exploit occasional cracks in Wisconsin’s transition defense.
Junior guard Peter Jok thrived in the first half, scoring 17 points and going 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Two of these triples came when the Badgers lost him and left him wide open in transition.
But in the second half, redshirt junior guard Zak Showalter locked down on defense, holding Jok to only four points on 1-of-6 shooting. As a team, the Hawkeyes struggled on offense in the second half, especially late in the game, allowing Wisconsin to take the lead and eventually pull away.
Iowa was a paltry 26.7 percent from the field over the final 20 minutes, including 1-of-11 from behind the arc, and missed its last eight shots of the game. The uptempo pace may have even cost the Hawkeyes, as Woodbury, who played 34 minutes, was running on fumes by the end of the game and could be seen gasping for air at some points.
With leading scorer Jarrod Uthoff only putting up 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting, Iowa desperately needed solid production from its bench but couldn’t get it. And it was in that particular area where the Badgers really did their damage.
Sophomore guard Jordan Hill scored nine points and Charlie Thomas added five points for UW off the bench, but it was the performance by freshman guard-forward Khalil Iverson that really stood out for the Badgers.
Iverson recorded nine points, three rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes of action after scoring a total of two points in 43 minutes over the previous five games. Iverson made Wisconsin look like Florida Gulf Coast circa 2013 at times with three of the team’s five dunks, including a highlight reel slam over Uthoff that put the Badgers ahead 53-51.
In total, Wisconsin’s reserves outscored Iowa’s 23-4, which may have been the biggest difference in the game. On a night where Hayes and Happ weren’t at their sharpest, the rest of the UW supporting cast was there to pick the team up. Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes, who are stuck in a slump due in part to declining bench production, once again couldn’t get enough out of their reserves to offset a poor performance from Uthoff. As a result, the Badgers all but punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament and Iowa was handed its third loss in the last four games.
