MADISON -- The Wisconsin Badgers took care of business inside the Kohl Center on Thursday evening in an 88-70 win over Green Bay.
BadgerBlitz.com breaks down five observations from the win.
1. The team has passed the ball nicely on Thursday, and for the most part, early on this season.
Despite 13 turnovers -- more about that later -- Wisconsin created opportunities against Green Bay with 24 total assists, and eight Badgers tallied at least one. Even when shots failed to drop, the team showed it could make the right passes to set up open looks as it has shown for the most part early on.
Individually, redshirt junior guard D'Mitrik Trice recorded a team-high seven assists, while Kobe King, Brad Davison and Tyler Wahl registered four, three and three, respectively.
2. Brad Davison finding the hot shooting hand of late.
Despite only playing 24 minutes while dealing with what appeared to be a left ankle injury suffered in the first half, Davison again showed he could step up in the stat sheet with 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting. That included draining three of six from three-point range and connecting on all four free throw attempts.
Against McNeese State, Davison stepped up with a season-high 24 points, then tied for the team high with redshirt senior Brevin Pritzl with 15 this past weekend in the win versus Marquette. We'll get to the offensive balance takeaway in a bit, but the junior now leads the team in scoring (15.6 points per game) and is shooting 54.2 percent from the field, 42.1 percent from three-point range.
3. Green Bay got hot, and Wisconsin, at times, played sloppy in the second half.
Wisconsin pushed out to a 51-29 halftime lead, but the team allowed Green Bay to stay within striking distance. The Phoenix eventually outscored the Badgers, 41-37, in the second half, and at one point, they shot 63.2 percent from the field. Linc Darner's team finished that final frame draining 53.3 percent (16 of 30) of their opportunities and 47.5 percent (29 of 61) overall during the interstate contest.
Along with allowing 41 points in the second half, Wisconsin also committed six of its 13 turnovers during that period. Junior forward Nate Reuvers committed five in the contest overall.
Nine of Green Bay's 17 points off of turnovers came in the second half
4. Wisconsin can be a dangerous team when it shoots the ball well from deep.
UW attempted 62 shots on the night, exactly half of those from three-point land. Luckily for Greg Gard's squad, they made 48.4 percent (15 of 31) in the win. Five Badgers hit at least 50 percent of their shots from downtown (Pritzl, Tyler Wahl, Trice, King and Davison).
In the first 20 minutes alone, Wisconsin shot 10-of-19 from beyond the arc to help them push out to a 22-point advantage before heading to the locker room. With former Badger Brian Butch in the building calling the game for the Big Ten Network, Pritzl banked in a three as the buzzer hit.
5. Offensive balance again shows up in the win.
As seen last weekend against Marquette, Wisconsin had six of its players reach double digits -- and once again, all five starters hit that benchmark. Despite dealing with foul trouble and playing only 20 minutes, Reuvers scored a team-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go along with three rebounds.
As previously mentioned, Davison scored 15, but King and Ford each contributed 12 while Trice finished with 11. Coming off the bench, Pritzl contributed 10 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Now through five games and heading into a pre-holiday tournament, UW has four players averaging double digits in scoring.
