The Badgers had a close upset bid, but pulled out another victory to stay undefeated.
The No. 19 Wisconsin Badgers narrowly defeated the UT Rio-Grande Valley Vaqueros 87-84, avoiding a major upset at home on Monday evening.
The Vaqueros already gave No. 14 ranked Creighton a tough time at home and kept this game close until the very end against the red-hot Badgers. Wisconsin is now 5-0 for the first time under head coach Greg Gard.
Here’s our full game recap from Wisconsin’s 87-84 win over UT Rio Grande Valley.
First Half
Starting Lineup: John Blackwell, Max Klesmit, John Tonje, Nolan Winter, Steven Crowl
From the jump, both Steven Crowl and Nolan Winter attacked the undersized Vaqueros frontcourt. Both were able to get to work and score a couple of early buckets. John Blackwell also started off well, which continued throughout the rest of the night as he set a career-high in points with 30.
As the first half continued, the Badgers began to tighten up their defense and made some nice stops to hold UTRGV scoreless for a few possessions. Xavier Amos had a really nice start to the game as well, grabbing an offensive rebound and sinking a layup midway through the first half.
As the game went on, it was clear that UTRGV was a real threat from beyond the arc. They obviously played extremely well against Creighton and continued that high level of play tonight against the Badgers. Shoutout to Vaqueros forward Hasan Abdul Hakim who had a monster dunk that turned into an and one situation.
Free throws continued to be a positive for this team as the Badgers made 14-16 of their first-half free throws.
One issue in the first half was John Tonje’s defense. Tonje was late to rotate on multiple possessions which allowed the Vaqueros to create open looks from three-point range.
At the half, the Vaqueros led the Badgers 52-48.
Second Half
The Vaqueros started off very slow in this second half by airballing their first three-point attempt. However, the Badgers did too as Max Klesmit missed an open three-pointer on the left side of the arc. Klesmit’s woes continued in this second half when he turned the ball over on a bad pass which led to an easy Vaqueros takeaway and score.
There was some nice movement from the offense to create an easy layup for Blackwell who took over offensively (and later defensively) in this game for the Badgers. Wisconsin continued to struggle when defending UTRGV’s mid-range and three-point attempts. Their lack of communication on screens and dribble penetrations also allowed the Vaqueros to come back in this game.
One thing was for sure all of the second half. The Kohl Center was very loud for a Monday night non-conference game, especially after John Tonje hit a huge three to tie the game at 61-61.
Blackwell continued to shine on the offensive side and made an impressive move to drill a mid-range shot and continue his career night.
A few bad switches and mismatches led to a pair of Vaqueros threes. However, Jack Janicki drilled a nice three to stop the bleeding. Janicki continues to be a constant spark off the bench.
Some impressive defensive possessions for Gilmore who Vaqueroes head coach Kahil Fennell praised in his post-game press conference. Gilmore did not continue his excellence on the offensive side as he missed two free throws when the Badgers needed them badly.
John Tonje continued to clutch after another big three put the Badgers up by two late into the second half. Klesmit also helped secure the lead with a nice turnaround jumper at the elbow for two points. Tonje continued to initiate contact in the paint for more and more free throw opportunities, which we saw in his monster game against Arizona.
Klesmit attempted a really poor shot as the clock winded down which gave the Vaqueros a chance to take the lead and win down by one in the final thirty seconds of this game. Kamari McGee defended his opponent extremely well which forced the Vaqueros to put up a shot and miss the basket.
Blackwell got the rebound and sank two huge free throws to make it a three-point game. The Vaqueros missed the half-court heave as time ran out which helped the Badgers remain undefeated and survive an early upset scare in this young season.
Final Thoughts
The defense hasn’t looked incredible this season, but looked especially ugly today. There were a lot of open looks for the Vaqueros beyond the arc which kept them in this game. The newcomers like Tonje and Amos need to clean up the off-ball defense or else the Badgers will be in a fair amount of shootouts this year.
The Badgers continued to shoot efficiently from both the free throw and three-point lines, showing their offensive versatility as a squad. A nice, clutch performance from John Blackwell and John Tonje was enough to overcome the scrappy Vaqueros as the Badgers stayed undefeated.
Wisconsin faces UCF next at the Greenbriar Tip-Off this Friday and will face either LSU or Pitt in either the championship or third-place game of the multi-team event.