Wisconsin overcomes spurts of sloppy play to wear down Jacksonville State
MADISON – One day after the Big Ten saw one of its team suffer a brutal home loss, Greg Gard’s Wisconsin team avoided a similar fate.
Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl helped Wisconsin build a double-digit lead in the opening half and the 23rd-ranked Badgers won 75-60 over Jacksonville State on Thursday night at the Kohl Center.
That result came one night after No. 25 Northwestern suffered a stunning 75-73 loss to Chicago State, traditionally one of the weaker programs in the country.
Box score: Wisconsin 75, Jacksonville State 60
Jacksonville State, a member of Conference USA, entered the night with a 4-6 mark and ranked No. 215 nationally according to the college basketball statistics website kenpom.com.
"We have seen it," Wahl said of the Northwestern loss. "Or if you didn't see it, I'm sure people heard about it. I feel like for us, we've got to show up every night.
"That was really pushed in the pregame speech, that if we want to be great we've got to show up every night.
"I think we did that for the most part. We still could have been better, but I'm pretty happy with how we played."
Crowl added: "We don't really care about the name on the jersey. We want to play Wisconsin basketball every time and do it to the best of our ability."
The Badgers (8-3) have won seven of their last eight games, with the loss coming last week at No.1 Arizona.
UW hosts Chicago State (4-9) on Dec. 22 before resuming Big Ten play Jan. 2 against visiting Iowa.
Wisconsin won the game inside with Steven Crowl and Tyler Wahl
Wahl (10.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg) and Crowl (12.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg) combined for 23 points and 11 rebounds in the first half for UW.
Crowl finished with 19 points and nine rebounds. Wahl finished with 16 points and seven rebounds. Crowl hit 7 of 11 shots and Wahl hit 7 of 12. They helped UW win the battle for points in the paint, 40-20.
"For the bigs, that is the goal every game," Crowl said. "To try to dominate the post no matter who we’re playing. It didn’t work very well against Arizona but come back today and tried to do it."
AJ Storr appeared to make a defensive mistake in the final seconds of the first half that led to a three-pointer but contributed 13 points and three rebounds and hit all five of his free throws.
Freshmen John Blackwell (seven points, two rebounds and two assists) and Nolan Winter (five points, three rebounds) led the reserves.
Chucky Hepburn hit just 1 of 6 shots but contributed seven points and four assists.
Guard KyKy Tandy scored 16 points to lead Jacksonville State.
Jacksonville State challenged the Wisconsin offense
UW has played cleaner games offensively. The Badgers hit just 5 of 16 three-pointers and only 6 of 11 free throws in the opening half before warming after halftime.
However, the Gamecocks entered the night holding opponents to 61.5 points per game, tied for the No. 12 mark nationally.
"You could (see) watching film that we were going to have to work to get things offensively because they are a good defensive team," Gard said.
After shooting 47.3% and hitting 12 of 15 free throws in the second half, UW finished at 1.210 points per possession. That was slightly above the season mark of 1.170.
"That puts is right at our average," Gard noted. "I know it doesn’t always appear to be aesthetically pleasing. But when you get into those types of games where they want to slow it down and go possession by possession, you have to be disciplined enough not to alter from what your plan is."
On Thursday, the No. 1 option on offense was to ride Crowl and Wahl because UW's most obvious advantage was in the lane.
"We knew we wanted to pound the ball inside," Gard said. "We had a size advantage and you don’t want to get into a jump-shot contest and let them neutralize what our advantage is.
"I think Steve’s demand for the ball … Tyler in there, really set the tone. We were going to pound it in there."
UW trailed for 23 seconds – at 4-2 – led by as many as 19 points in the second half and held the lead for 35:59 overall.
Aesthetically pleasing? Not always.
But Gard’s players can relax a bit before their final non-conference game and ten prep for the resumption of league play.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin basketball beats Jacksonville State 75-60 at Kohl Center
