After Saturday’s disaster, the No. 11 Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team needed to bounce back, and they did so in a big way against Washington Tuesday night at the Kohl Center by handily defeating the Huskies 88-62 behind an explosive offensive effort.
Wisconsin faced a potential sleepwalk game against Washington, the cellar-dwellers of the 18-team Big Ten Conference. But in applying constant pressure on Washington, the Badgers did what they needed to do to re-find their positive vibes and improved to 22-6 (12-5 Big Ten).
“We were in attack mode from start to finish,” head coach Greg Gard said after the game. “I don’t think we ever really relented and backed off. Even when we had a large lead, it was a mindset in all the timeouts to continue to attack and play aggressive.”
Guard John Blackwel led Wiscosnin, who recorded his first career double-double, scoring 24 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, shooting 9-16 from the field and 4-7 from three. John Tonje added 13 points on 4-10 shooting with five rebounds, while Steven Crowl scored 12 points on 5-8 shooting. Xavier Amos had his best night as a Badger, scoring 12 points, a Wisconsin career high, and shooting 3-4 from three.
The Badgers had a successful rebounding night, crashing boards all night and out-rebounding the Huskies 41–26. Hustle accumulated for much of Wisconsin’s rebounding success, with guards accumulating 25 rebounds.
“That’s a team that has championship culture and championship habits. They make everything hard,” Washington head coach Danny Sprinkle said of Wisconsin. “They take a lot of pride in what they do.”
The Badgers only received five minutes from guard Max Klesmit, who precautiously left the game early with lower leg difficulties. Without his presence, back-up point guards Kamari McGee and Jack Janicki certainly rose to the occasion, each scoring eight points. Janicki grabbed four rebounds, while McGee secured three. For both players, Tuesday night encapsulated their great seasons.
“It’s been a great role to be a part of this team and contribute to winning with so many great teammates and the fans that we have,” Janicki said after the game. “This is a dream come true, and this whole season’s been a really great experience for me, and I just want to continue to grow.”
In the first half, Wisconsin sleepily built a 43-28 halftime lead, puncturing Washington’s zone defense with an array of 3-pointers and paint attacks. Led by Blackwell’s 19 first-half points, the Badgers didn’t blaze their way to 43 points, but rather steadily stacked points over an outmatched Huskies team.
Wisconsin started off slow, not scoring until nearly three minutes into the game, when John Tonje hit a step-back corner 3-pointer. Trailing 5-3, Wisconsin rattled off a 12-2 run in less than two minutes. Four straight points from Crowl and another four straight from Tonje gave the Badgers a 15-7 lead with 13:41 remaining in the half.
Around the nine-minute mark, with Wisconsin leading 20-15, Blackwell began to warm up, scoring at will to advance the Badgers’ lead to double digits. A lay-up got Blackwell’s scoring started and gave way to the three 3s the sophomore guard connected on in the ensuing minutes. After his barrage, Wisconsin led 33-19 with 4:58 left in the half.
Blackwell then added six more points — a stepback jumper, a dunk and a buzzer-beating jumpshot to finish the half.
Without Blackwell’s jumpstarting effort, Wisconsin may have found themselves in dicey waters entering the second half. Washington’s zone defense hampered the rest of Wisconsin’s offense as they couldn’t find much fluidity.
But in the second half, Wisconsin’s offense quickly found its groove, soon building their lead into the 20s, and then 30s.
If Blackwell stole the show in the first half, the Badgers went in a different direction to start the second half, as five different players accounted for Wisconsin’s first six field goals. Contributions from Winter, Tonje, Crowl, (the only repeating scorer of the stretch) Janicki and McGee pushed Wisconsin’s lead to 19.
Then, McGee got going. Over a three-minute stretch, the feisty point guard showcased what he does best, scoring six straight points on a trio of driving lay-ups and hustling for a steal and drawing a charge.
Wisconsin’s other back-up, Janicki, then got in on the action, driving for points on multiple occasions, leaping for a tip-in bucket and hitting a stepback 3 during the stretch that ballooned Wisconsin’s lead. When two straight Xavier Amos 3s fell, Wisconsin’s lead had ballooned into 30-point status with 8:30 still left in the game.
From there, it was smooth sailing for the Badgers, who emptied their bench early.
Now, Wisconsin will prepare for possibly its toughest test of the season, a Sunday match-up at Big Ten-leading No. 8 Michigan State.
