The Wisconsin Badgers overcame a sloppy first half to beat the Illinois Fighting Illini 72-60 on Wednesday night in Champaign - improving to 13-6 (5-3 Big Ten) with their 14th consecutive win over Illinois.
BadgerBlitz.com's Stat Pack from the game is included below.
-- Every team talks about having to "do the little things" to win basketball games consistently - but there are exceptions to every rule. The Badgers were sloppy at times on Wednesday in their win over the Illini: they turned the ball over 17 times as a team, got out-rebounded on the offensive glass 14-8, and got out-scored in the paint 32-30 by and Illinois team that has had issues scoring inside the 3-point arc consistently this season.
-- Had UW been playing a better team, the result might have been different. Illinois won the turnover battle 17-10, but the Badgers scored more points off of the Illinois turnovers (17) than the Illini scored off of Wisconsin's (16). The Badgers also finished the game with a 11-6 edge in second-chance points, despite losing the battle on the offensive glass.
-- So how did the Badgers manage to pull out a win that looked relatively comfortable by the end of the second half? They shot really well from the floor when they weren't turning the ball over. Wisconsin finished the game shooting 51 percent as a team, and they made 50 percent of their 3-point shots in the game (7-of-14).
-- Compare that to Illinois' night on the offensive end. The Illini shot just 35 percent (22 of 62) in the game, and they made just 19 percent of their 3-point shots (4 for 21). I don't care if you win the battle for the little things - at the end of the day you still need to put the ball in the basket, and the Badgers did a much better job of that on Wednesday night than Illinois did - and it was enough for them to overcome a first half that saw them commit five turnovers before four minutes of the game had elapsed.
-- And while free throw shooting has not been a strength for the Badgers this year, they did a good job with the opportunities they created on Wednesday against Illinois. Wisconsin made 17 of 21 free throws on Wednesday - and they made more free throws than Illinois did, even though the Illini were in the bonus very early on in the second half after the Badgers were called for nine team fouls (yes, you read that correctly) in the first five-and-change minutes after the break.
-- In fact, Illinois was just 7-for-14 from the free throw line after the Badgers put them in the bonus so early in the second half.
-- It wasn't a victory the Badgers are going to have a ton of fun watching it back on film. But they did enough and made enough plays to get another win in a true road game that should give them a little more confidence as they try and build off of last weekend's win over then-No. 2 Michigan.
-- What's more impressive is that the Badgers managed to take down Illinois on a night where not everything went their way and senior forward Ethan Happ was limited to just nine points in the game. Happ played in just 24 minutes for the Badgers on Wednesday thanks to some fouls that forced the Badgers to save him for the end of the game. It was the first game Happ hasn't scored at least 10 points in Wisconsin's last 42 games.
-- The Badgers overcame Happ's foul trouble thanks to a career night for sophomore forward Nate Reuvers, who scored a career-high 22 points and pulled down 10 rebounds - his first double-double at Wisconsin. Reuvers was 7 of 11 from the floor and came on strong in the second half in particular while Happ had to sit after picking up his fourth foul. Reuvers was 2-for-3 on his 3-pointers and got to the free throw line by attacking the basket as well. He made all six of his free throws in the game.
-- Senior guard Khalil Iverson also had a bit of a bounce-back performance, finishing the game with 12 points and seven rebounds after seeing Kobe King eat in to his minutes over the last few games. Iverson made the most of his 26 minutes for UW - he was a force that Illinois had to account for near the rim, and if he can give the Badgers that kind of offensive threat on a night-to-night basis it would go a long way.
-- Sophomore point guard D'Mitrik Trice scored 16 points for the Badgers and was a big help on the free throw line as well, where he went 6-for-6. But Trice isn't going to be happy with his assist-to-turnover ratio in this game - he'll need to get that fixed moving forward.
-- Give a hand to junior guard Brevin Pritzl - he was the only UW bench player to score for the team in the game. Pritzl hit a key 3-pointer in the second half that helped stretch Wisconsin's lead, and he gave the team some solid minutes on the defensive end as well.
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.
