The University of Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team (14-5, 6-2 Big Ten) took a four game win streak into Pennsylvania to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions (9-10, 0-8 Big Ten) on Thursday for an important conference game.
Coming into the game, Penn State had been competing with some of the Big Ten’s best, including losing by just two points to then No. 2 ranked Michigan earlier this month. While they were unable to pull out a win, it means they’re an opponent the Badgers couldn’t take lightly.
The Nittany Lions showed this early as they stuck with the Badgers and held the lead early at 13-12. An AND1 from senior guard Andrew Rhode put the Badgers up 15-13 and they never looked back.
Rhode’s AND1 started a 38-10 scoring run that put the Badgers up 50-22 at halftime. Senior guard Braedon Carrington continued to make the most of his expanded playing time, scoring 17 points on 5/6 shooting from the field, including 4/5 from three point range in the first half.
The Badgers kept the pedal to the metal in the second half, getting their scoring run up to 43-10 at the beginning of the half before pushing the lead all the way to 37 at one point.
This could be a good sign for the Badgers as letting teams back into games has plagued them in the past, such as Jan. 6 vs. UCLA when the Badgers held a 20 point lead early in the game but fought with a lead under 10 points for a good portion of the second half.
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Junior guard John Blackwell put together another solid performance, scoring 17 points on 5/10 shooting and added 5 assists while junior forward Nolan Winter put up 13 points and 10 rebounds, his 9th double-double of the season.
Lead scorer, senior Nick Boyd did not put together his best performance, scoring just 11 points on 5/13 shooting but playing only 21 minutes because the Badgers held a big lead for the entire second half.
This game continued the Badgers hot shooting, shooting 15/35 from three making it the fourth straight game they shot over 40% from three point range. This comes after shooting just 27% from three in their first four Big Ten games.
The Badgers now have a five game win streak, all in conference, to make them 14-5 and 6-2 in the Big Ten. Even being 6-2, there are five teams ahead of the Badgers in the Big Ten meaning they have to continue to keep the pedal to the metal as they come back to Madison for a three game homestand against USC, Minnesota and Ohio State to close out January.