In a dominant, confidence building game, the Wisconsin Badgers handled business against the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers 94-71 in their exhibition home-opener.
Coming into their first game of the year, Wisconsin made a small adjustment to their starting lineup. With Austin Rapp still sidelined due to injury, Hofstra University senior transfer Forward Victory Onuetu moved into the starting five, giving the Badgers a chance to showcase another frontcourt option as they begin shaping their early-season identity.
Wisconsin used their size and physicality to open a 27-11 advantage over the Rangers with 11:32 remaining in the first half. Forward Nolan Winter was the primary option for the Badgers’ offense, scoring eight of the fifteen points in that span.
With more of a focus on attacking the post and paint against the UW-Parkside defense, Greg Gard used combinations of two bigs to create space and use efficient pick-and-roll plays to get easy shots in the paint. Sophomore Will Garlock and Victory Onuetu got to see lots of playing time.
As the first half rolled on, the Badgers continued to focus on a more physical, ball control brand of basketball, shooting 14-18 from inside the three-point line and 9-11 on free throws.
Along with playing physically, the Badgers only had two turnovers in the first 16 minutes of the game, but did struggle with ball security toward the end of the first half with four turnovers in the final four minutes of the half.
Wisconsin was also able to find defensive success with full court pressure on multiple occasions, which forced UW-Parkside into making some unforced errors and five turnovers in the first half. The Badgers held UW-Parkside to 2-10 on three-point attempts and only allowed the Rangers to have six free throw attempts in the first half.
Going into halftime, Wisconsin led UW-Parkside 52-33.
Looking to add on to a complete first half, Wisconsin extended their lead to 61-38, with 16:38 left in the second half.
Following a dunk by Onuetu to get the Badgers to 61 points, they went four minutes without scoring a point. During that stretch, Wisconsin had three turnovers and started to get away from the complementary basketball they played in the first half — playing more isolation offense rather than having efficient ball movement.
Even with the Badgers having offensive struggles, UW-Parkside was only able to cut the deficit to 61-44 before Eian Elmer tipped in a missed three-point attempt by Braeden Carrington.
Following the Badgers breaking their four-minute scoreless streak, both teams had a competitive second half and Wisconsin outscored UW-Parkside 31-27 over the final 12:30 of game time.
In their blowout win, Wisconsin had five players who scored double digit points, led by Winter with 15 points and Elmer with 14 points. Winter also led the Badgers with nine rebounds.
As a team, the Badgers had 40 points off the bench, 56 points in the paint, and 24 points off turnovers.
For UW-Parkside, Brian Hawthorne had 19 points and five rebounds, both led the Rangers. William Booker was another major contributor for the Rangers with 12 points in only 18 minutes.
As a team, UW-Parkside struggled shooting the ball, 40% from the field and 26% on three-point attempts.
Although it wasn’t perfect, Wisconsin was able to limit the damage of mistakes, only seven points allowed off 15 turnovers, and had an efficient offensive gameplan, 57% shooting from the field, that overwhelmed UW-Parkside and allowed the Badgers to have a great start to the 2026-2027 season.
Wisconsin will look to continue their early season success on Oct. 15 at 6:30 pm when they travel to play UW-Green Bay in their second of three exhibition games.
