Three Observations from Wisconsin's Win vs. Nebraska

A trio of takeaways from the home win.

MADISON -- Some hot shooting from deep throughout the game and improved defense in the second half allowed the Wisconsin Badgers to pull away from the Nebraska Huskers in an 82-68 win on Tuesday night inside the Kohl Center.

AllBadgers.com breaks down three observations from the home win that now ties Wisconsin (12-7 overall, 5-3 Big Ten) for fourth place in the conference standings. 

Badgers Air It Out from Three-Point Range in Record Fashion

Coming into the game shooting just 32.5% from deep, UW lit up the Kohl Center floor in drilling 18 of 34 attempts (52.9%) from beyond the arc. That eclipsed not just a season-high for the team but also set a new single-game record in program history.

Eight players hit a three-pointer. Guards Brad Davison and Brevin Pritzl (four each) led the team in that regard. Redshirt junior D'Mitrik Trice added three as well on way to a double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists).

"I think it's just when you see the ball go in, whether it's individual or as a team that just breeds confidence," Davison said. "Like what 'Meech' said, we had spent a lot of time in on time, on target passes. [Ed. note: More on that below in the third section.] Whoever got the ball in the post, we wanted to play inside out. Nate, Micah, Kobe, Brevin, every one who was in there did a really good job of when the double team came, spraying it out and we were looking one more, passes it over, trying to pass up good shots for great shots. When you do that, Coach says they usually go in more."

Davison's three treys early in the second half contributed to Wisconsin extending its one-point halftime lead to 14 as part of a 15-2 run. A little later, Nate Reuvers' triple at the 14:30 mark capped a 20-4 spree to give UW a 17-point advantage at 59-42.

Wisconsin's Defense Improves After Rough First Half

In the first half, the Badgers allowed the Huskers to shoot 55.6% from the field (15 of 27). On top of that, Fred Hoiberg's team pushed it in the paint and outscored UW 18-12. Guards Dachon Burke and Cam Mack each contributed 12 points and combined to shoot 10 of 14 in the first 20 minutes.

"I was a little upset," head coach Greg Gard said about the first half performance.

"We got stretched out, which is credit to them because you're cognizant of where the three-point shooters are. A couple times we had mistakes right away. We went under first three that '34' (Thorir Thorbjarnarson) hit, we went under the screen. We didn't exchange on one of them. We exchanged, but two guys went with the ball and we had to give a layup so we just had some miscommunication issues. 

"Then we did a poor job I thought of stopping the ball at times. We're either too low in the ball screen. Didn't stop it when it did come. Got spun around on a three in front of our bench twice in a row, so there was just some things that needed to be straightened out and refocused on that end of the floor. Knowing that how they score, you can't get caught up in what is going to happen for us offensively because you're going to get open looks with how they play. The defensive end we needed to tighten the belt a little bit, which we did second half. Thought we were much better."

In the final 20 minutes, Wisconsin contained Nebraska to 11 of 33 from the field (33.3%) and just two of 13 (15.4%) from deep.

Overall, however, Hoiberg's program still dominated the points in the paint by a 36-16 margin and was able to convert some high percentage layups at times in the final 20 minutes. 

At two instances in the second half, Wisconsin's lead whittled down to five points before Gard's team eventually pulled away.

"I think that we got to do a better job on our on-ball defense," Trice said. "They were able to get into the lane, draw fouls, find a couple shooters at the top of the key, and credit to their guards. Their guards did a really good job of getting downhill and creating for other guys and then finishing around the rim. But we got kind of lazy on defense a couple times, and I think that's when they started to come back. Then we caught a couple timeouts, and we got our guys together, and we decided to step on their throat a little bit more on the defensive end and play more suffocating defense. I think that was the biggest change in our defense."

Burke scored a game-high 20 points on 10-of-14 shooting (all two-pointers) with eight rebounds. Reserve forward Kevin Cross tallied 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting (3-of-5 from deep). Mack finished with 14 points (five of 15 in field goal attempts), seven rebounds and six assists in 36:42 of play.

Contributions from All Around for Wisconsin

Nine Badgers scored for Gard's team on Tuesday night, and four players -- Davison, Trice, Pritzl and Reuvers -- eventually finished in double digits in scoring. On top of that, UW recorded 23 assists on the night against the Huskers, just one off the season high.

"The biggest thing that we took away, or one of the big things that we took away from the Michigan State game was putting it on time, on target," Trice said. "I think that us seeing the ball up and hitting our shooters in the shooting pocket really helped our shooting tonight."

Gard noted after the game that the ball "didn't stick."

"We didn't over-dribble," Gard said. "It went side, top side, back, two or three times and you have to move it like that against how they play defensively, play inside out. We've been saying, 'on time, on target' -- that's a Coach (Howard) Moore phrase that he brought when he came back. I thought for the most part, we put the ball on time and on target, and when you move the ball like that, and put it on target, you're going to shoot it well. Usually good shooting teams are good passing teams, and at times we haven't passed it as well as we need to this year. Tonight, we passed it pretty well, and obviously the numbers bear that with 23 assists and 18 made threes."

Wisconsin bench outscored Nebraska's by a 29-17 margin. Pritzl drained four of eight from three-point range for 12 points. Forward Micah Potter added nine points and five rebounds in 13:23 of play, and true freshman Tyler Wahl scored five points, four rebounds and three assists in 11:33 of time on the floor.

Though he scored just three points, reserve guard Trevor Anderson played nearly 14 minutes and dished out three assists with no turnovers.