Madison, WI — From the National Championship to losing only Bo Ryan’s 23rd game ever at the Kohl Center, the Wisconsin Badgers were stunned Friday night by Western Illinois, 69-67.
The night began with the Badgers raising the “2015 Men’s Tournament Finalist” banner ceremony with messages from both Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky and a reflection on last season’s miraculous run. But, any winning stopped there.
Click here for player grades and advanced statistics from the loss to WIU.
The Badgers went into halftime leading 44-37 after Nigel Hayes scored 17 points in the half to lead Wisconsin. Forwards Vitto Brown and Ethan Happ both had two fouls early on, and did not did play much of the first half. Freshman guard Khalil Iverson stood out in the first half, including a monstrous slam off a steal and overall stellar defense. The Badgers out-rebounded the Leathernecks 19-10 in the half, with the Badgers actually matching WIU’s rebound total with 10 offensive rebounds. Western Illinois’ J.C. Fuller, who ended the game with 20 points, went 3-3 from 3-point land to give him 13 points in the first half.
Coming into the second half, you had a feeling Wisconsin would pull away. But, that quickly changed as the Badgers started off the half 0-7 from the field and Western Illinois tied it up at 44 within three minutes. Wisconsin could not stop WIU’s Fuller and Garret Covington among others, and trailed by eight with under six minutes left. After Brown finally hit a jumper to lower the gap to six after the Badgers hadn’t hit a field goal in over eight minutes, the Badgers had life again. Brown, who had an awful game up until this point, was huge during the stretch. He followed that up with clutch plays, getting to loose balls and sparking the Badgers’ response. Without Brown’s play and Bronson Koenig’s shooting, the Badgers would have been out of this one way earlier. After tying the game under a minute, the Badgers fouled Covington with about 10 seconds left, who hit two clutch free throws. Koenig’s jumper at the buzzer did not fall, and the Badgers came up short.
The Badgers ended up shooting 25% (8-32) in the second half, and Hayes was held scoreless in the game’s last 20 minutes. In fact, Hayes and Showalter combined 0-10 from the floor in the second half. In the end, the team shot 35.5% (22-62) in the game, and they did not play well enough defensively to win on switches and in transition. The Badgers were even in the bonus already with 10:49 left in the half, but only shot 50% from the line in the second half.
The loss snapped Wisconsin’s streak of 51 consecutive regular-season non-conference wins against unranked teams. To add insult to injury, the Leathernecks were 8-20 last season, and this was WIU head coach Billy Wright’s first ever road victory. In fact, WIU was picked to finish last in the Summit League this season.
The Badgers utilized the seven-man rotation we saw all week in practice, with guard Jordan Hill also getting one minute of action. Koenig, who turned 21 today, had 17 points on 7-15 shooting and no turnovers. Happ had an off game, only securing six rebounds and five points in 19 minutes after being in foul trouble.
There were plenty of positives to take away, however, including Iverson and fellow freshman Charlie Thomas’ play throughout. Iverson proved why he is in the rotation, and both he and Thomas had five offensive rebounds. The Badgers also only turned the ball over four times and had 21 offensive rebounds total.
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who was critical of his team after the game, reminding the media that this team still has “a long way to go.” Hayes, Brown, and Koenig were in the media room after the game as well, stunned and disappointed as they’ve ever looked.
On the other side, WIU’s Wright, who said he shed tears of joy after the win, put it well after the game: “It’s not who you play, it’s how you play.” Again, this was Wright’s first career win on the road.
The Badgers take on Siena, losers to Duke tonight, at home on Sunday night at 7:00 PM.
Photo from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Athletic Department.