EVANSTON, ILL.'After practice Monday, the reporters fired questions at Wisconsin coaches and players concerning how the Badgers would attempt to contain Northwestern's senior forward Vedran Vukusic. The question should have been, how does UW expect to contain senior guard Mohamed Hachad?
The Wildcats rode Hachad's hot hand throughout the whole game. Hachad had a career-high 25 points in Northwestern's 11-point win over the Badgers at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Having averaged 18 points over the two games prior to their bout with UW in losses at Illinois and Ohio State, Hachad hit that total early in the second half.
Badgers head coach Bo Ryan said he was not shocked by Hachad's performance, saying that the team had prepared for the senior out of Monreal.
'Everybody knows about his slashing. He's pretty good at that and he's healthy now,' Ryan said. 'He delivered. He's pretty tough. But we knew that coming in. It's not like he surprised us.'
Hachad cited Northwestern's ability to create mismatches for his success.
'A couple times I was on the side with their big guys, and I knew that I could drive on him and I took advantage of that,' Hachad said. 'I was successful at getting to the basket and finishing on my layups.'
Badgers go cold in the second half
Junior guard Kammron Taylor hit a layup less than a minute into the second half, cutting the Northwestern lead to one, 31-30. That was as close as the Badgers would get, as the team went ice cold in the second half.
The Badgers scored just 24 points in the second half, while Taylor and junior forward Alando Tucker combined for just eight points in the second frame. The duo scored just 11 and 14 in the game, respectively.
'It was a tale of two halves,' Taylor said. 'In the second half, we didn't look to attack at all. We can't do that. We have to play the second half just like we did the first half.'
The Badgers shot 25 percent from three in the second half, missing 10 shots from behind the arc.
'We relied too much on our outside shot instead of trying to get into the paint,' Taylor said.
Charity stripe
UW attempted just 18 free throws in the entire game, two less than the Wildcats attempted in the second half alone. Wisconsin shot 50 percent from the charity stripe, over 16 percentage points off the team's season average, while NU shot 80 percent from the line. Tucker shot just two-of-three from the line, with no other Badger attempting more than four.
With the Badgers down 10 and less than four and a half minutes remaining, the Wildcats proceeded to knock down 10 straight shots from the line to close the game, en route to clinching the game.
