Badgers Roll to a 78-52 Win Over Louisiana Tech
December 28, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Four players scored in double figures as the Wisconsin men's basketball team (10-1) rolled over Louisiana Tech 78-52 Wednesday at the Kohl Center. The Badgers extended their win streak to six games and continued to build on head coach Bo Ryan's best start at Wisconsin.
Sophomore Brian Butch led Wisconsin with 18 points and 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. Teammate Ray Nixon scored 14 while Alando Tucker and Michael Flowers added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
As a team, the Badgers shot over 54 percent from the field (31-of-58) and outrebounded Louisiana Tech 44-33 en route to the win. Wisconsin is 7-0 this season when shooting at least 45 percent from the field.
Wisconsin never trailed in the game, opening with an 8-0 run in the first three minutes. The lead would escalate to 18 with just under five minutes left in the half, 32-14.
The biggest lead of the game would be 30 following a Nixon trey with four minutes left to give the Badgers a 74-44 advantage.
Paul Millsap led Louisiana Tech (7-6) with 16 points, the only Bulldog to reach double digit scoring.
Wisconsin will play at Pittsburgh at 5 p.m. Saturday. The game will be carried locally by ESPN Plus.
Game Notes
This was the first meeting between the two teams ' sophomore Brian Butch tallied his second career double-double with 18 points and 10 boards. His first career double-double came against Wake Forest (19 points, 10 rebounds) ' the Badgers shot .534 from the field (31-of-58). UW is 7-0 this season when shooting over 45 percent from the field ' the Badgers also are 7-0 when ahead at the half ' Meanwhile, Louisiana Tech shot .313 percent from the field (20-of-64), the lowest of any UW opponent this season ' Wisconsin's bench outscored the Bulldogs bench 26-14.
Post-Game Quotations
Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan
On how the big guys played: 'Sometimes if you have a one-two punch you can do a lot. We tied to make Millsap work against double teams, and he still got 16 points. We were trying to wear them out and disrupt their defense. '
On how the days off affected the game: 'I think that there were some things that we could've done better. Sometimes when you come off of a break like that you don't know what to expect. The way they work and how Coach Gard prepared them helped out a lot. We had three practices and the scout team did a great job working the guys this past week.'
On Butch's play: 'He's been pretty active in all our games. Against some teams he is going to be able to exploit his size more than others. This is a team that he had a chance to get some good touches and good looks. He got a double-double, so it was definitely a good night.'
Louisiana Tech Head Coach Keith Richard
Opening statement: 'First of all, I'd like to congratulate Wisconsin. They were playing very, very well tonight. They shot the ball extremely well, especially coming off of the layoff they've had. I thought they really shot the ball extremely well. Their post people just killed us all night long. They did an outstanding job; they're a good team. In non-conference, that's our third ranked team: Alabama, Memphis, Wisconsin. We played Texas Tech on the road, Nebraska on the road. We've played some good people and have played well at times, even beating Texas Tech. But Wisconsin is as good a basketball team as any of those teams that we've played against right now. We're a better basketball team than that, even though we didn't show it tonight.'
On Paul Millsap: 'Paul has struggled against taller people at times throughout his career, including tonight. Size bothers him, especially if we can't roll out and get people off of him a little bit by making some outside shots. That was part of the curse on us tonight. We're not making enough shots, particularly early, and now he's really having to score over bigger people and struggling with it as opposed to spreading the floor and letting him get some cleaner plays to the bucket.'
