What a difference a half makes.
After a sloppy first half where the Badgers hit just 3-of-13 three point attempts, Wisconsin (2-1) came out firing, and pulled away from the McNeese State Cowboys (1-3) to pick up a 83-63 win.
Despite a poor start shooting from guards Brevin Pritzl and D’Mitrik Trice — the pair combined for 0-for-8 from three in the first half — Pritzl opened the second half with a three.
Then Trice added one right after.
Then Pritzl added another, and the game and the rest of the Badger offense seemed to open up, as Wisconsin shot the lights out in the second frame to finish with 60 percent shooting from the field, and 46.7 percent from three.
“I felt like we had good looks in the first half and they just didn’t fall,” said junior forward Aleem Ford. “But in the second half, they were falling.”
Ford finished with a career high 16 points and hit two threes in the second half, improving after a half time break where junior guard Brad Davison said head coach Greg Gard “got into [them]” to improve, especially defensively.”
It was Davison who led the way during the poor first half for Wisconsin. In light of sophomore guard Kobe King’s injury, Davison picked up some of the slack with 14 points on 80 percent shooting as well as two good steals to give the Badgers a 37-34 lead at the break.
Davison really helped spark Wisconsin as he led the Badgers with 24 points and a career-high 4 steals. With Ford and junior forward Nate Reuvers struggling with foul trouble and containing McNeese State forward Shamarkus Kennedy, who dominated with 18 first half points, Davison was able to carry the load.
“I think with Aleem and Nate in foul trouble, and Kobe out, we all kind of needed to take an extra step on both ends of the floor,” Davison said.
One surprising name who helped pick up the slack was junior guard Walt McGrory. McGrory saw his first minutes of the season, putting up nine points after scoring just six all last season. Greg Gard said he wanted to find more playing time for McGrory either way after he impressed in practice.
“[McGrory] is solid. Sound. Just how he played tonight, that’s how he’s been every day at practice,” Gard said. “Our hand was forced a little bit tonight with Kobe being out, but he really was a catalyst.”
Gard said Wisconsin didn’t attack their defense enough during the first half press while their defenders were spread out, and let them get back to their half-court defense too easily. Gard adjusted some of the personnel to have a ball handler in the middle at halftime, but felt the most important change at the half was their mentality.
“We were just more aggressive on both ends of the floor in the second half,” Gard said.
The second half improvement is a good sign for Wisconsin going forward. Especially since they’ll be facing in-state rivals the Marquette Golden Eagles in their next game on Sunday.
