Beginning with a scare and ending with a decisive victory, the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team opened the season with an 85-61 win against the Holy Cross Crusaders on Monday night at the Kohl Center.
Six and a half minutes into the fresh season, Wisconsin found themselves down 16 points. But behind stellar play from guards John Tonje and John Blackwell and a pair of menacing runs, the Badgers pulled away for a season-opening victory. At times it wasn’t pretty, but Wisconsin weathered the storm to begin the season 1-0.
Wisconsin entered the season with a largely new team and therefore plenty of unknowns. Stripped by transfer portal exits, head coach Greg Gard rebuilt his roster with a variety of transfers of his own. Monday night was the first true look at Wisconsin’s new squad, and after a sloppy first half, the Badgers were able to recover with a steady stream of scoring.
Transfer guard Tonje led the way with 23 points on 6-11 shooting alongside five rebounds, while Blackwell added 15 points on 5-10 shooting. Wisconsin also received a career-high 15 points from sophomore forward Nolan Winter, all in the second half. Forward Steven Crowl scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Wisconsin was steadied by a perfect 16-16 from the free-throw line.
Tonje’s 23 points marked the most in a Badgers debut since Josh Gasser’s 21 against Prairie View A&M in 2010. Along with Tonje, several other Badgers made their debut, including transfer Xavier Amos, red-shirt freshman Jack Janicki and true freshmen Daniel Freitag, Ricardo Greppi, Aidan Konop and Jack Robison.
Crusaders forward Gabe Warren led Holy Cross with 23 points on 9-13 shooting.
Warren’s hot start gave Holy Cross an early 21-5 lead, as the Crusaders made nine of their first 10 shots from the field. But Wisconsin was able to steady the ship, riding a Tonje-led 18-2 run to tie the game at 25 with 5:17 left in the first half. But Holy Cross continued to battle, and the Badgers went into the half down 35-36.
In the second half, Wisconsin’s 16-0 run propelled them to a double-digit lead, taking control of the game and never giving it back. Wisconsin pulled away largely by riding a collective hot hand from three, shooting 8-16 from the three-point line in the second half.
Wisconsin will now move on to prepare for home match-ups against Montana State on Thursday and Appalachian State on Sunday before a huge test against No. 10 Arizona on Friday, Nov. 15.
