Badgers Beat Phoenix 73-57
December 10, 2003 | Men's Basketball
The No. 23 Wisconsin men's basketball team kicked off a three-game homestand with a 73-57 victory over in-state rival UW-Green Bay Wednesday night at the Kohl Center. It marks the 17th consecutive home win for the Badgers, improving the second-longest streak in the Big Ten and the 10th-longest streak in the country.
Wisconsin had three players scoring in double digits against UW-Green Bay. Devin Harris led all scorers with 18 points. Harris, who was 3-for-4 from the free-throw line today, has made just four less free throws (38) than Wisconsin's opponents have combined to make (42) so far this season. Freddie Owens and Mike Wilkinson contributed 16 and 12 points, respectively.
Sophomore Alando Tucker saw his first playing time of the season after missing eight weeks with a broken foot. Tucker added five points and dished out an assist in 12 minutes of action for the Badgers.
Opening up the in-state contest, Harris hit a three-pointer just 19 seconds in and the Badgers maintained the lead throughout the remainder of the game.
Both teams were hot from the field in the first half each shooting 55 percent. Owens led the UW offensively with 12 points before the break, while the Badgers, who are leading the Big Ten averaging only 10.4 turnovers per game, forced 12 turnovers in the first while only committing three. Boo Wade made a lay-up with three seconds remaining to send the Badgers into the break with a 40-25 advantage.
The Phoenix battled back, however, opening the second half with an 11-5 run to make the score 45-36. The Badgers continued their aggressive defense, forcing 17 turnovers, including 10 steals. Wisconsin sealed the victory by outscoring UW-Green Bay15-5 in the final six minutes of the game.
UW's offense was on fire completing the game with season-high 54 percent (27 of 50) from the field while hitting 41.7 percent (5 of 12) of three-point shots. After nailing just 9-51 (.176) treys in their first three games, the Badgers improved to 22-55 (.400) from beyond the arc in the last three games.
Brandon Morris, who averages 10.6 points per game this season, led the Phoenix with 11 points.
The Badgers improve to 5-1 overall this season and 10-0 all-time against the Phoenix including seven wins in Madison. Wisconsin has won 15 of the last 16 meetings with its three Division I in-state rivals (Marquette, UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee).
UW continues its homestand on Saturday against UW-Milwaukee. Tip off is at 11 a.m. at the Kohl Center.
Wisconsin Men's Basketball Post-Game Quotes
Wisconsin vs. UW-Green Bay ' Dec. 10, 2003
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On the Badgers' low free-throw shooting, especially in the first half:
'The ball didn't go down. Sometimes it gets contagious too. I like the fact that we got there though. I thought we should've been there more. If you hit your first few, you tend to maybe get a little bit of a groove. We didn't do that but that's a statistic that's so easy to look at. Anybody could look at that. It's all part of the game.'
On shooting over 50 percent from the field for the first time all season:
'Yes. They were real aggressive on every cut with hands and bumps and that which I'm not saying anything that wasn't called. By doing that at times, when we get it into the post and we get a chance to finish, I thought we were patient enough, assists to turnover (ratio was) 15-7, we didn't get into a rat game, except for three shots maybe that I can think of, where we took shots where we didn't make them have to guard cuts. There's a lot of teams that have had good fortune by having an offense where people ran cuts to the basket, off back screens, off up screens ' so we got there and when we didn't, we caught them out of position and made high-percentage shots. We didn't take a whole lot of threes, just four in the second half and then got some high-percentage shots in the end because they were trying to press and we caught them in transition. They were matching up man-to-man. We got to the rim easy. We figured they were going to foul us, so we attacked the rim and waited for them to foul and then go to the free-throw line again. But we got of a couple of easy ones there at the end, well one was a three-point play where I think they wanted to foul, but couldn't quite get there to foul. So that helps you on the percentage.
UW-Green Bay Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk
Opening Statement: 'I told our guys before the game, that in my eyes there are going to be three keys to the game. I felt coming in that to play against a team that's as well coached as Wisconsin we had to first of all, not turnover the ball. I told our guys we had to keep it 10 or fewer. Secondly, I wanted to attempt as many free throws as they did. Lastly, I wanted to out rebound them by one. I felt if we did those three things, we'd give ourselves an opportunity in the last three minutes. I firmly believe that that was the case in the second half, we did those things. We had five turnovers in the second half, of which two of them happened in the last 30 seconds. We only had three turnovers, we rebounded. We attacked much more on offense, I thought that's why we came out and played so well in the second half. I guess I'm disappointed in the first half of our turnovers. Some of them were, in my eyes, just not smart basketball. You had the moving screens and careless passes. '
Tod, is that why you started Javier (Mendiburu) in the second half, because of the turnovers'
'No, not at all. I started Javier (Mendiburu) in the second half because I thought Terry Parker was not defending as well as he can. Terry Parker, in my eyes, is capable of being a tremendous defensive player. And right now, he's not giving us that effort. That's why I challenged him at half time, I told him, `I'm not starting you, I'm giving you one more opportunity to play in this game and see what you do with it.' And he played terrific in the second half. He's got to play that way for 40 minutes.
