MADISON -- As the fourth-ranked Wisconsin Badgers returned home from a weekend in Iowa, they faced the Indiana Hoosiers Tuesday night at the Kohl Center. The Big Ten-leading Badgers looked to extend their win streak to five as they took on the Hoosiers.
They were able to do so, also building their conference lead to two games over the rest of the field with a 92-78 win in Madison. The 92 points the Badgers scored was the second highest total of the season, only behind the 93 scored against UW-Milwaukee.
The snow that hampered many fans' ability to get to the game did not cool off the scoring by either team. The Badgers' post play consisting of Nigel Hayes and Frank Kaminsky seemed to be unstoppable in the first half. The Hoosiers played a zone that often saw their smallest players on the floor matched up against the Wisconsin's most physical. The Badgers were able to score 24 points in the paint during the first 20 minutes.
"I think our guys made some tough shots inside," UW coach Bo Ryan said. "19-of-24 [shooting] from the 3-4-5 starters, from those positions, and we knew we had to have that."
The Badgers came ready to play from the onset, going on a 9-0 run to begin the game. After that, the two big men took over. Not only were they able to have a great first half, they continued to dominate throughout the game. Hayes and Kaminsky combined for 25 points in the first half with 11 and 14, respectively. Bronson Koenig also contributed 10 points in the half. Hayes finished with 16, Kaminsky ended with 23 and Koenig competed the game with 15.
"I think we did really well," Kaminsky said. "Most of our offense ran through the post tonight. We knew we had a size advantage and we knew we had to take advantage of it."
Not to be outdone, the Hoosiers kept it close in the first half thanks in large part to their three-point shooting. Despite the defense in the post not working in the first half, Indiana was able to shoot an outstanding 8-of-11 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes. IU's long-range shooting kept the game close in the first half, but not much else went right after that.
In the second half, Wisconsin stormed out to a 13-0 run. Going back to the 4:33 mark in the first half, the team went on a run of 25-6 until Indiana finally scored with 14:52 remaining on a Troy Williams free throw. During this time, the Hoosiers cooled off from deep and found themselves out of the game quickly. By the 11:47 mark in the game, the Badgers were leading the half by a 27-6 margin.
"That first 10 minutes of the second half was the way I like to see us play," Ryan said. "They were desperate to get back in it, so they started firing some threes. If those threes don't go in it's no telling what the score is, but they were shooting them because they can make them."
Indiana was able to make a late charge, taking what was at one point a 32-point lead and trimming it to a 12-point deficit with less than three minutes remaining. That would be as close as the Hoosiers got to the Badgers since the early moments of the second half.
"We were right in it at halftime," Indiana coach Tom Crean said. "We just didn't have the same activity and aggressiveness [from the first half] that we needed in the second half."
When all was said and done, the Badgers had led by as many as 32 points and shut down what was a potent Indiana attack in the first half. After shooting 56 percent from the field and 73 percent from three-point territory, the Hoosiers shot 14-of-32 (44 percent) in the second half and 38 percent from three.
"The game kind of played out the way we thought," Ryan said. "They were gonna do their thing and we were gonna do our thing."
Not to be left out of the scoring fun, Sam Dekker contributed 14 points for Wisconsin while scoring 10 in the second half. Josh Gasser added 11 points to round out the starters.
"We might have stepped off the gas a little bit and relaxed, and they took advantage of it, but we were able to give ourselves a huge cushion," Kaminsky said. "Whatever they did would have been really hard to come back from."
Zak Showalter contributed nicely off the bench with a career-high nine points. The redshirt sophomore converted on three layups and was fouled on all three. He made all three free throws.
"It was fun. I've kind of been waiting for this," Showalter said. "[I'm] just trying to make positive things happen on the court."
"A lot of what Showy does for our team isn't necessarily seen in games," Kaminsky added. "In practice, there's days where [the starters] can't even stop him."
The Badgers will look to keep their five-game win streak alive against Northwestern on Saturday. Game time is 4:30 p.m. CT at the Kohl Center.