The University of Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team (4-1, 0-0 Big Ten) took on their toughest opponent of the year Friday against the No. 9 Brigham Young University Cougars (4-1, 0-0 Big 12).
The Cougars are a top-10 team in the country and knocked the Badgers out of the NCAA tournament last March, so the Badgers were looking for revenge early in the season.
Similar to last season, BYU came out with an early lead of 18-6 including a 18-4 run, and didn’t give the Badgers much chance to make up ground as they added a 16-4 run in the half to take a 45-33 lead into halftime.
A three pointer from sophomore Jack Janicki just six minutes into the second half cut BYU’s lead to 54-47, but yet another scoring run by BYU would make the score 85-58, a 27-9 scoring run. BYU’s biggest lead of the day was 32 points with a minute to go and the game would end 98-70 BYU, handing the Badgers their first loss of the season.
Like last March, BYU was able to get whatever they wanted offensively, but unlike last March, the Badgers were unable to create the same level of offense, shooting just 38% from the field and 24% from three.
.sno-69238dfd97001 {
background-color: #ffffff;border: 5px solid #888888;box-shadow: -1px 0 2px 0 rgb(0 0 0 / 12%), 1px 0 2px 0 rgb(0 0 0 / 12%), 0 1px 1px 0 rgb(0 0 0 / 24%);margin: 30px auto; float: none;}
.sno-69238dfd97001 h5 {
color: #000000;
}
Senior Nick Boyd and junior Nolan Winter each continued their good starts to the season despite the loss. Boyd continued to score well with 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting and Winter had 14 points and 14 rebounds. Neither player would be able to make a three pointer, each shooting 0-for-4.
Junior John Blackwell was unable to continue his strong start shooting just 3-for-13 from the field for 14 points, his worst shooting percentage of the season and second lowest point total.
On the other side, BYU’s Richie Saunders burnt the Badgers again putting up 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting. NBA prospect AJ Dybansta only shot 3-for-8, but got to the free throw line 12 times and made 11 of those attempts to total 18 points.
The Badgers will have a chance to bounce back this Thursday on Thanksgiving against Providence in the Rady Children’s Invitational. The Badgers will have to play better offense and defense as Providence has scored at least 88 points in each of their first five games this season, including two losses against Power Five schools.