With 2:46 left in the first half of the Badger victory over Michigan, senior forward Zach Morley went up for the offensive board before landing hard on his back, his face grimaced in pain. As the Kohl Center held its collective breath waiting to see if Morley would have to be helped off he court, he carefully stood up and jogged off the court to the relief of the 17,142 people in attendance.
It has been a rough season for Morley who, until Wednesday night, had not scored in double figures since going up against Purdue more than a month ago when he scored 22 points. While he did not put up those kinds of figures against the Wolverines, it was perhaps his strongest game since then, even as he continues battling an injury that kept him out against Iowa on Feb. 9.
\It was great,"" Morley said. ""The last few games have been a struggle both physically and playing and not trying to do too much. Tonight I was able to hit the first couple of shots, which always makes it easier. After that, guys found me open and I was able to put it in.""
Morley ended the first half with 10 points, most significantly going 2-of-2 from behind the arc and had a solid night with four assists, providing the aggression missing with freshman forward Brian Butch sidelined by mononucleosis.
""I thought he really played extremely well and hurt us early with a couple threes in the early part of the first half [that] stretched us out,"" Michigan head coach Tommy Amaker said. ""Certainly he gives them that lift off the bench, a nice offensive punch he gave them this evening, but certainly the threes he made in the first half I thought were points that really hurt our team.""
While Amaker praised Morley, Badger head coach Bo Ryan laughed about a few of Morley's shot selections including one over the backboard and joked that Morley was looking for a shooting drill to be named after him with those types of shots.
""Zach felt pretty comfortable,"" Ryan said. ""He must have because ... he took two shots that I haven't seen before.""
But jokes aside, Ryan seemed pleased by the way Morley responded after a tough game against Illinois last weekend where he had seven points in 19 minutes after having sat out the previous game. His only complaint lay with Morley's 2-of-5 free throw shooting. Morley came into the game shooting just over 62 percent from the charity stripe.
""He really stepped up big,"" Ryan said. ""He was confident, he had his feet set, got the rhythm back ... Zach did well. He just needs to shoot the line a little bit better. And get rid of that one shot.""
