Playing away from the Kohl Center continues to haunt the Wisconsin Badgers, as they fell to Rutgers, 72-65, in Piscataway, N.J., on Wednesday night. All five of UW's defeats so far during this 2019-20 season have come away from Madison.
BadgerBlitz.com breaks down five observations from the first conference loss for Greg Gard's team.
1. Turnovers plagued the Badgers early
After only coughing up possession four times in 40 minutes against Indiana on Saturday, Wisconsin (5-5, 1-1 Big Ten) reverted to some previous ways during its mid-week contest. In the first half alone, UW committed 12 turnovers, which led to 16 of Rutgers' 32 points.
The Badgers improved in the second half and finished with 14 turnovers on the night, leading to 22 points. Nate Reuvers, D'Mitrik Trice and Trevor Anderson all recorded three.
2. Rutgers dominated the boards.
The Scarlet Knights out-rebounded the Badgers 40 to 26 on Wednesday night. That included Steve Pikiell's team grabbing 14 on the offensive end, which helped Rutgers convert into 23 second-chance points.
On the flip side, UW only had three offensive boards and five second-chance points.
Rutgers eventually outshot Wisconsin, 63 to 48, and at one point in the first half, the former doubled up the latter by a 30 to 15 margin.
At least three Scarlet Knights registered at least seven rebounds (Akwasi Yeboah with eight, Myles Johnson and Ron Harper, Jr. with seven each). Reuvers and Brad Davison led the Badgers with five each.
3. Wisconsin allowed Rutgers to shoot over 50 percent in the second half.
Despite all the second chances and extra opportunities to make buckets inside the RAC, Wisconsin still contained Rutgers to 38.2 percent shooting in the first half (13 of 34). After halftime, the Scarlet Knights improved their touch drastically to 55.2 percent (16 of 29).
Guard Geo Baker scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half, hitting six of his nine shots. Johnson tallied 10 of his 12 during that frame as well.
After making 54.5 percent of its shots in the first 20 minutes, Wisconsin cooled off to just 42.3 percent in the second half. Badger shooters made just three of 12 three-pointers in that latter frame after heading into intermission connecting on five of 11 attempts from deep.
4. Only one Badgers starter scored in double figures
More on Kobe King's night in the final topic below, but only two Wisconsin players -- the aforementioned guard and Anderson -- finished the night with 10 or more points.
The other four starters -- Trice, Reuvers, Davison and Aleem Ford -- shot a combined eight of 22 from the field. The latter two scored nine points each with Ford also making all four of his free throw attempts.
Reuvers, who had scored in double digits in all nine games previously on way to leading the team in that category entering Wednesday night's match-up, concluded this conference contest with six points on 2-of-8 shooting.
5. Kobe King continues to take a lot of shots, and that's a plus.
BadgerBlitz.com wrote about the redshirt sophomore being more aggressive and the positive impact it can make on the offense, and for the third straight game, he attempted 10 or more shots. Against Rutgers, he made seven of 12 from the field for a team-high 18 points.
Breaking down the shot chart courtesy of StatBroadcast, King made five of six layup/dunk attempts while hitting on two of three inside the key. While the rest of the starters did not hit double digits in scoring, the La Crosse, Wis., native at least asserted himself on Wednesday night.
