Though he didn’t light up the scoreboard Tuesday night to the same extent he did at Madison Square Garden, Ethan Happ backed up his masterful 32-point performance with a strong all-around contribution in Champaign, Ill.
The sophomore forward found himself involved on every inch of the court as the No. 10 Badgers (8-1 Big Ten, 19-3 overall) downed a feisty Illinois (3-7, 13-10) team, 57-43 for the 11th-straight time.
UW rushed out to a quick 14-point lead that would eventually grow as large as 16, as the Badgers hit 10 of their first 14 field goals. The Fighting Illini, normally explosive offensively at home, were held to 10 points until deep into the first half when Tracy Abrams hit a 3-pointer with 7:36 to go.
Illinois climbed back to within 11 toward the end of the half, but senior forward Vitto Brown’s tip-in with just over two seconds remaining in the opening frame sent the Badgers into the locker room with a comfortable 13-point lead.
Though they never got any closer than a 6-point deficit, the Fighting Illini made the second half significantly less smooth for UW. Several times, they crawled within single digits as the energy built in the State Farm Center.
But each time Illinois started to make a run, the Badgers had an answer. First, when Kipper Nichols hit a turnaround jumper to cut the lead to nine, senior forward Nigel Hayes snagged a missed 3-pointer from Bronson Koenig and slammed it through the hoop for a nasty putback. He shot a look to the Illinois student section and the stadium fell quiet.
A few minutes later, Illini sharpshooter Jalen Coleman-Lands buried a three that cut the Badgers' lead to eight points. But sophomore forward Khalil Iverson answered with a three of his own to push the lead back to double digits.
Things got a little dicey when Jaylon Tate took a steal all the way to the basket to make it just a six-point game as the arena exploded. From that point on, though, the game was all UW. Illinois scored just seven points over the remaining 10:53 as the Badgers coasted to a 14-point victory.
Happ finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive end, but his contribution was even larger than those numbers indicate. UW feasted in the pick-and-roll game, and Happ set strong screens everywhere on the court, allowing guards like Koenig to find openings and bury jumpers.
Iverson, not regarded as a threat from deep, hit both of his two 3-point attempts and added three timely steals to help the Badgers seal the win.
Koenig struggled from deep, though, making just 1-of-6 from beyond the arc and finishing 4-of-13 from the floor on the night.
Most importantly, though, the Badgers held Malcolm Hill, the Big Ten’s leading active scorer, to 10 points on just 4-of-14 shooting. He was never able to find a rhythm as Hayes shadowed him for much of the game.
Next on the docket, the Badgers return home to the Kohl Center to welcome a struggling Indiana team. The Hoosiers recently lost back-to-back ugly games to Michigan and Northwestern on the road.
