Playing without two of its top guards Saturday morning, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team (1-1 Big Ten, 4-7 overall) looked lethargic early and struggled to slow down a high-powered Marquette (7-3) offense as the Badgers dropped the seventh of their last nine games, 82-63.
Just before the game tipped off it was announced that sophomore guard D’Mitrik Trice, the team’s starting point guard, would undergo foot surgery Monday and would be out indefinitely. Joining him on the injury list was freshman guard Kobe King, who missed the game nursing a left knee injury.
In the absence of those two, it was freshman guard Brad Davison who carried the load for UW. When the Golden Eagles stretched their lead to 17 on back-to-back threes from Sam Hauser, Davison snagged two steals and scored six straight points to keep the game within reach.
In the first half alone, Davison scored 13 points and handed out three assists. He would finish the game with a career-high and team-high 20 points to go along with four assists and four drawn charges.
Redshirt junior forward Ethan Happ also did his part, chipping in 17 points and a team-high nine rebounds, though he turned the ball over a game-high five times.
But Happ’s impact on the floor was somewhat neutralized by the roster makeup of MU. The vast majority of the Golden Eagles’ scoring was done by its backcourt players, limiting the effect of Happ’s spectacular defensive ability.
Those dangerous backcourt players, Markus Howard and Andrew Rowsey, combined for 47 of MU’s 82 points on 15-of-27 shooting, including 9-of-15 from three-point range.
UW made repeated runs, cutting the lead to single digits to close the first half and climbing with six points on multiple occasions during the second period. But every time the Badgers gained a hint of momentum, Howard and Rowsey buried them with a timely three.
Redshirt junior guard T.J. Schlundt played a career-high 13 minutes and tied his career-high with three points. He was called into more action than usual with Trice and King out.
Marquette nearly couldn’t miss from beyond the arc, hitting an absurd 63.6 percent its 22 attempts on the night. That was the difference in the game, as the Golden Eagles outscored UW by 30 points from three-points range.
As has been the case time and again, the Badgers were dominated in the closing minutes of the game, making just three of their last 12 field goal attempts.
Check back at dailycardinal.com/section/sports for full coverage of the Badgers’ loss.
