Revenge is a dish that is best served at home.
The University of Wisconsin men’s No. 19 basketball team (14-5, 7-4 Big Ten) bounced back from a shaky first half, beating Penn State (6-8, 3-7) 72-56.
The Badgers started hot early and took the lead 12-9 after the first four minutes of play. Wisconsin shot 5-7 during that distance and all the buckets were scored by front court players. While the Badgers were eager to open the gates, things got sloppy as the first half progressed.
A layup from Wisconsin Senior Trevor Anderson put the lead 24-18, but the Nittany Lions snuck back into the game due to Wisconsin’s sloppy play in the first half. The Badgers posted a total of 11 sales in the first half, two more than their season average (8.8) for Tuesday’s matchup.
Penn State’s Seth Lundy pocketed a 3-pointer to block the game at 25, and the Badgers would have failed halfway if a Brad Davison Summer beater hadn’t put the Badgers by a narrow 33-31 lead at break would have.
The second half was all of Wisconsin. The Badgers exploded out of doors in the second half, scoring the first nine points, increasing the lead to 42-31. A basket from Nittany Lion cut the lead to single digits, but Wisconsin responded when senior Brad Davison buried a 3-pointer to push the lead back to 12.
The last part of the game was all Jonathan Davis.
Tuesday was a test of Davis’s mental toughness as the star freshman struggled in the first half. Davis was kept calm with just three points but bounced back in the second half and scored 11 points in the final 11 minutes, including three 3-point points. Davis’ fourth 3-pointer pushed the game out of reach as the Badgers led 65-44.
During the game, Wisconsin received a huge boost from their bench. It didn’t seem to matter that Davison and D’Mitrik Trice, the counterpart in the back seat, got 13 points together in a crappy 3v15 shooting night, while Wisconsin’s bank got an astonishing 35 points.
Along with Davis ’17 points, Anderson nearly tripled his scoring average with nine points and senior Nate Reuvers finished with nine points. Reuvers’ last basket made him the 47th player in men’s basketball history in Wisconsin with 1,000 points.
This milestone is another accolade in Reuver’s impressive résumé as a badger – the senior also became the Wisconsin leader in blocks in Wisconsin’s out-of-conference win against Rhode Island earlier this season.
The Badgers return to action in a showdown on the road against Illinois on Saturday. The delivery is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
