Any Badger fan who personally witnessed the number of jumpers the Badgers had rattle out, or the numerous routine lay-ins and put-backs Wisconsin missed against North Dakota State, may have thought their team had completely lost its ability to shoot. However, the Big Ten leading Badgers (5-1 Big Ten, 15-4 overall) quickly put that myth to rest during one remarkable run in a 72-43 win over Penn State (2-4, 10-7)
After the Badgers and Nittany Lions each hit their first two shots to make the score 5-5, the teams went in opposite directions. Wisconsin caught fire, scoring the next 21 points to take a commanding 26-5 lead with 9:36 left to play in the first half. Highlighting the remarkable run was the Badgers' accuracy from behind the arc, where they went 5-of-7, much to the delight of a sellout Kohl Center crowd who found little to cheer about against NDSU.
'I know coming in, we said this was going to be a statement game. We wanted to prove something,' junior forward Alando Tucker said. 'By coming out with a lot of energy we could get our crowd into it early. You've got to take advantage of your home court and that's one of the things we didn't do the past game.'
Penn State sophomore guard Geary Claxton, a Big Ten All-Freshman Team member last season, was the only thing keeping the Nittany Lions from being run out of the gym as he scored 11 of the Lions' 18 first half points. Despite his solid performance, Claxton and Penn State found themselves down 22 points at the half after Tucker hit a three-pointer as the first half buzzer sounded.
'Well, obviously they made up for [their] shooting the other night,' Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis said following the game. 'I thought Wisconsin was on all cylinders the first half and really shot the ball well. We couldn't get any offense going for us other than Claxton, and it was just a long night.'
After shooting a solid 50 percent in the first half, the Badgers found the scoring a little tougher in the second, going only 8-of-28 from the floor. But it was still more than enough to hold off a cold Nittany Lion squad that suffered a season low in both points (43) and field goal percentage (31.8).
A newly maskless Tucker bounced back from a rough previous outing to shoot 50 percent and notch a game-high 17 points. Junior guard Kammron Taylor also enjoyed a solid performance by scoring 14 points and dishing out six assists without a turnover.
The Badgers will head into Ann Arbor Saturday to take on a hot Michigan team coming off a big home victory over rival Michigan State.
