The No. 21 Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 83-72 Tuesday at the Kohl Center in their Big Ten home opener.
The Badgers came into this matchup after an 80-53 victory at the Kohl Center over the Chicago State Cougars. Just like the game against the Cougars, Wisconsin had to deal with a full-court press by Iowa from the start of the game.
The Badgers struggled to defend the 3-point line in the first half as the Hawkeyes made four more 3-pointers than Wisconsin.
Despite the Badgers’ defensive struggles against Iowa’s 3-point shot, forwards Steven Crowl and Tyler Wahl locked up the paint and held the Hawkeyes to 10 first-half points in the paint. In comparison, the Badgers’ scored 22 first-half points in the paint.
Crowl finished the game with 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Wahl finished the game with a team-high 19 points and eight rebounds He made 11 of 13 free-throw attempts.
Even with Wisconsin’s dominance in the first half, they found themselves tied at halftime with Iowa.
In the second half, the Badgers found success with 10 minutes left in the game to take the lead from the Hawkeyes.
Wisconsin topped off their second half performance with an alley-oop dunk thrown off the backboard by Badgers guard Chucky Hepburn and finished by Badgers guard AJ Storr that erupted the Kohl Center crowd.
Seconds later, Hepburn stole the ball off a bad pass from Iowa guard Brock Harding and laid it off the backboard for an and-one layup, but he was unable to capitalize on his free throw attempt.
Compared to his fellow Wisconsin starters, Hepburn played fewer minutes because of foul trouble throughout the game. He finished the game with four points, three assists and two steals.
In a postgame press conference, Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard gave insight to how Hepburn was feeling since their last game on Dec. 22.
“We were fortunate we had the break that we had, in terms of the days off and rehab and stuff that he's been doing," Gard said. "He's feeling good, and I thought he did some things, especially in the second half. He got going defensively and sparked us."
The Badgers move to 10-3 on the season with a Big Ten conference record of 2-0. Wisconsin will continue its Big Ten schedule against Nebraska on Saturday at the Kohl Center.
