Despite the absences of freshman forward Marcus Landry and sophomore center Greg Stiemsma, the Wisconsin men's basketball team (4-1 Big Ten, 14-4 overall) had a lot going for them heading into a match-up against North Dakota State (11-9 overall) Saturday at the Kohl Center. The Badgers came into the game riding a 27-game home-winning streak against non-conference opponents, had not lost two consecutive games in nearly two years, clearly possessed more talent at every position than the Bison and had their usual 17,142 cardinal and white clad fans cheering them on.
But none of this matters if a team can not put the ball in the basket, which was exactly the problem the Badgers ran into as they shot the lofty sum of 72 shots, but only 16 found the bottom of the net, for a season-worst 22 percentage from the field.
'When the ball doesn't go in, you can't explain it all the time,' head coach Bo Ryan said following the game.
Their offensive ineptitude, combined with the Badgers' inability to get key stops down the stretch to support their furious late game run was ultimately too much to overcome, and Wisconsin fell to the Division I upstart 62-55.
From the opening tip, the Badgers experienced difficulty putting points on the board, but to even a greater extent so did the Bison, which contributed to a 11-7 Badger lead at the 11:33 mark of the first half. But Wisconsin would hit an offensive wall for more than five minutes, at which point they trailed 18-12. Things would only get worse as NDSU's standout freshman point guard Ben Woodside would lead a 12-4 run to close out the first half which left a stunned Badgers squad down 30-16 at the half.
During the final 20 minutes of play, the Badgers made repeated attempts to slice into the Bison lead, which with 7:10 remaining in the game had ballooned to an almost unthinkable 18. Employing unrelenting defensive pressure lead the NDSU to commit a total of 24 turnovers.
'There is only one thing that you always say as a coach when you get into these types of games when you are struggling on the floor: You have to do other things to make sure you get a chance,' Ryan said. 'You have to get on the offensive boards and rebound when they are not going in'??we did. And you have to get the other team to turn the ball over'and we did. You suppose we'd have a chance then, and we had a chance.'
But the Badger's inability to make critical shots down the stretch, most notably three pointers and easy put backs made making a sustained run impossible.
'That's one of the things when you make your run, momentum swings your way, but you have to finish it off and it didn't seem like we capped it off because we couldn't knock down shots,' said junior forward Alando Tucker, who shot an abyssal 2-of-18, good for just 11 points.
Woodside would not allow the Badgers to get any closer than four as he repeatedly made pressure packed free throws down the stretch directly in front of a frenzied student section to put the game away. Woodside tallied a total of 24 points on the day, highlighted by his 11-for-13 run at the line, including connecting on his final eight.
Junior guard Kammron Taylor paced the Badgers with 19 points, but took 24 shots to get there, including an uncharacteristic two-for-nine from behind the arc.
Wisconsin will take on Penn State Wednesday night at the Kohl Center where it will look to retain its lead in the Big Ten title race.
