A trip out to the Garden State finished poorly for the Wisconsin Badgers, as the team fell to the New Mexico Lobos on Tuesday night inside the Barclays Center, 59-50.
BadgerBlitz.com presents five quick observations from the defeat during the consolation game of the Legends Classic.
1. Another extremely poor shooting performance from three-point range.
After draining under 26 percent of its opportunities from downtown on Monday, Wisconsin followed up with an even more subpar, dismal performance against New Mexico. The team overall made just two of 26 attempts from three-point range on Tuesday (that's 7.7 percent).
Guards D'Mitrik Trice, Brad Davison and Brevin Pritzl combined for 19 attempts from deep, making just two altogether.
In Monday's loss against Richmond, over half of Wisconsin's shots came from three-point land. On Tuesday, the Badgers nearly hit that 50 percent mark in attempting 26 of 53 field goals from beyond the arc. Just too many threes.
2. Wisconsin shot itself in the foot with first half turnovers.
Wisconsin nearly had as many turnovers (10) as rebounds (11) in the 20 minutes of play, but the team only made seven of 18 shots in that time frame. New Mexico converted those extra opportunities into eight points in the first half.
Perhaps one of the lone bright spots for the Badgers came with the fact they protected the ball further in the second half in coughing it up four times in that final period. However, forward Nate Reuvers and Aleem Ford attributed to five and four, respectively, of the 14 overall turnovers in the game.
3. Kobe King not a factor.
After being one of two players in double digits for UW in the loss against Richmond, the redshirt sophomore shot 3-of-9 from the field, scoring just six points and grabbing five rebounds in 27 minutes of work.
The robust scoring threats seen against Marquette and Green Bay -- where six players scored in double figures in both contests -- failed to show themselves on the Barclays Center floor in both losses.
For Wisconsin to be effective on the scoreboard, it needs players like King to get back to what he has shown in flashes early on..
4. Despite the turnovers, Nate Reuvers again takes on role as leading scorer.
The junior forward fouled out later in the second half, but he finished with a game-high 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting. He also contributed five rebounds and one block in his 30 minutes of play.
Reuvers was the only player to shoot above 50 percent on Tuesday, and the rest of the team combined to make 11-of-44 shots. Not to pick on Davison, but he did not make a bucket in nine field goal attempts.
5. Wisconsin just couldn't close the gap enough to retake the lead.
Wisconsin's last lead came at the 6:47 mark of the first half at 14-13. For nearly 32 minutes of gametime overall, New Mexico held the advantage.
Down by nine at halftime, UW was able to pull within a possession at the 9:46 and 5:32 marks of the second half -- both times where the Badgers found themselves within three points.
Even after a Trice layup with 52 seconds remaining, Wisconsin was down just 54-50 but it could not find someone to takeover in the final minute to find the bottom of the basket.
