It wasn’t pretty, but the Badgers were able to get it done on the road against Iowa.
Hitting the road for another Quad 1 opportunity, the Wisconsin Badgers fought hard for a 74-63 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday, taking over the game late in the win.
Wisconsin had a tale of two halves, as they struggled defensively early on, while getting shots to fall in the first half before their three-point shooting faded, forcing them to attack more in the second half.
With the win, Wisconsin temporarily moved into fourth place in the Big Ten, improving to 19-5 on the season and 9-4 in conference play.
Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s 74-63 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday.
Three-point shooting
One of our biggest keys for the Badgers pregame was controlling the three-point shooting on both sides of the court.
Iowa, known for their faster pace, and offensive output, had a number of three-point scorers, especially Josh Dix and Payton Sandfort. On the other hand, Wisconsin had made 21 threes in their 116-85 win over the Hawkeyes back in early January, so three-point shooting was going to be a key to success as well.
Early on, the Badgers were connecting from deep, hitting seven threes in the first half while shooting over 40 percent from deep. John Tonje and John Blackwell both connected on a pair, while Max Klesmit, Steven Crowl, and Carter Gilmore had threes of their own.
But, Iowa was hitting from deep as well, especially over the first few minutes of the game, hitting 5/13 (38.5 percent) of their threes in the half, thanks to a pair from Dix.
That led to an even-keeled first half, with Wisconsin shooting a little better than Iowa, but turning the ball over six times in comparison to two, while giving up two more offensive rebounds.
The second half, however, is where things took a turn for both teams. Wisconsin really struggled to connect from deep early in the half, hitting just one of their first seven threes. The looks were really good, generated off consistent ball movement, but shots weren’t falling and the Badgers continued to settle for threes.
Iowa, on the other hand, wasn’t getting as many quality looks from three, forcing them to try and find other forms of offense, which really didn’t come along in the second half.
Wisconsin was able to neutralize Dix, but especially Sandfort, who struggled the entire game, finishing with just seven points on 2/11 from the field and 1/7 from three.
That led to a fairly even battle from deep, which is what Wisconsin needed to keep Iowa from running away with this one, leading to our next takeaway of…
Late aggressiveness
As the second half went along, it was clear that Wisconsin was struggling from beyond the arc, even when creating quality looks.
That signaled a need to begin attacking the rim and taking advantage of the Hawkeyes defense in a different way. Now, Iowa deployed a zone defense to try and limit Wisconsin’s touches in the paint in an attempt to neutralize the impact of the bigs, where the Badgers had a definitive size advantage.
That meant that the Badgers were going to need dribble penetration. And that came in the form of two sparks: Kamari McGee and John Tonje.
With the game tied at 51 a piece nearing the midway point of the second half, McGee had a three-play stretch that really began to set the tone for the Badgers. First, when breaking the press off an inbound, the Badgers struggled initially, but got the ball past midcourt, creating a numbers advantage.
McGee saw that, pushing the ball ahead to Steven Crowl, who gave the ball back to the guard for an open three from the wing. Money.
Then, on the ensuing possession, McGee attacked the defense, drawing a foul on Ladji Dembele that would soon set off a chain reaction. Right after, McGee once again attacked the defense, drawing a defender in before kicking the ball out to Carter Gilmore. Gilmore quickly swung to the corner after attracting a rotating defender, leaving an open John Blackwell to hit a three, making it 57-51 Wisconsin.
Those three plays began the aggressive mentality of the Badgers, who would feast at the free throw line over the final minutes of the game.
From there, John Tonje took over. Having a 57-54 lead with under nine minutes in the game, Tonje took it upon himself to draw hard to the rack, seeming as explosive as he’d been all afternoon, which drew a foul on Seydou Traore.
After splitting the pair of free throws, Tonje did the exact same thing two possessions later, this time drawing a foul on Dembele. His two free throws gave Wisconsin a 61-60 lead, which they wouldn’t give up for the final 7:12 of the game.
On the very following possession, the Badgers senior guard was fouled on the drive, leading to another pair of free throws, which he sunk, putting him at five straight points for Wisconsin.
Then came some strong ball movement from the Badgers, with a number of passes leading to an open Tonje three from the wing off the assist from Max Klesmit, making it eight straight for the guard.
Tonje’s aggressiveness wouldn’t stop there though, as he took off on another press break up the sidelines after catching the ball near midcourt, drawing a foul from Payton Sandfort, and earning two more free throws.
Those 10 straight points created a two-possession cushion for the Badgers, and the Hawkeyes would never get within five from there, as Tonje hit two more free throws later while drawing a foul, putting his second-half total alone at 10 free throws.
Wisconsin needed a spark offensively and it had to come by attacking the basket. They trusted their star player to do exactly that and he delivered in a big way.
Defensive intensity
Playing on the road is always a challenge. Playing on the road against a hot Iowa offense that just poured 81 points in a loss to the Purdue Boilermakers is even tougher.
The Hawkeyes, despite losing leading scorer Owen Freeman, were going to be a tough task to guard on Saturday. And the Badgers saw that over the first 20 minutes, as Iowa put enough pressure offensively to carry a 39-37 lead into the break.
However, in the second half, Wisconsin really dialed up their defensive intensity, holding Iowa to just 24 second-half points and their lowest-scoring total of the entire season.
Looking specifically at the last 13:52, the Badgers were stellar, holding Iowa to 3/19 from the field and just 13 total points. The Hawkeyes went a five-minute stretch without a field goal in that period (13:52 to 8:51) and then held Iowa to just one field goal over the final 7:28 of regulation.
Over the past few games, Wisconsin’s defense has steadily improved as head coach Greg Gard looks to get his unit inside the top 25 nationally. But, it was stellar on Saturday, keeping the Hawkeyes at under 40 percent from the field and their lowest point total of the year.
John Blackwell led the way, hounding Iowa’s guards with a significant amount of on-ball pressure, keeping Josh Dix to just one field goal in the second half.
Wisconsin also defended the screens for Payton Sandfort well, as the forward was unable to curl free for threes at his normal rate on an ugly day for the Iowa star.
They also neutralized Pryce Sandfort, as he scored just one point in the second half after a 5/6 start off the bench in the opening period.
Overall, Wisconsin showed that they could win in a much different way on Saturday, and they picked up a big Quad 1 victory as a result.