Game Notes: Wisconsin 77, Loyola (Chicago) 63

The No. 12 Wisconsin Badgers (5-1 overall, 0-0 Big Ten) beat the Loyola (Chicago) Ramblers (3-1 overall, 0-0 MVC) 77-63 on Tuesday night at the Kohl Center. This game was a stiff test for the Badgers as the Ramblers play a similar style and have players with Final Four experience on the roster and for Wisconsin to come out 14-point victors speaks highly to them.

Here are some fun facts courtesy of the UW Athletic Department, post-game quotes and highlights.

• The Badgers extended their home winning streak to 13 games, the longest active home win streak in the Big Ten.
• Wisconsin has also won 20 straight home games against non-conference opponents.
• With the game tied at 33-33 in the second half, Wisconsin went on a 21-3 run to open a 54-36 lead with 11:08 remaining. The Ramblers went 8:14 without a field goal during the run.

• For the third time this season, UW had four players score in double figures.
• The Badgers shot a season-high 55.6% from 3-point range, going 10-for-18 from long range. The Badgers’ 10 triples matched their season-best effort. Senior big man Micah Potter led the way going 3-of-4 from downtown.
• On Tuesday, Wisconsin turned the ball over a season-low four times. The Badgers have turned the ball over 11 or fewer times in 24 consecutive games.
• With 17 points in the contest, senior guard Brad Davison now has 1,117 career points, moving into No. 34 place on the school’s all-time scoring list, passing Marcus Landry (1,114) and color commentator of the game Brian Butch (1,115).

• Senior point guard D’Mitrik Trice had zero turnovers in 32 minutes of action and now has 21 assists and five turnovers (4.2 A/TO ratio) on the season.
• Freshman guard Jonathan Davis equaled his career high with 12 points, making a career-high five field goals. He also pulled down five rebounds and dished a pair of assists.

Greg Gard

• “I like the way we battled back after a bit of a slow start. I thought Tyler [Wahl] gave us a big boost, Trevor [Anderson] gave us a big boost, Johnny [Davis] gave us a boost.”
• On what Trevor Anderson brings to the team, “He gets us a little more aggressive, offensively specifically. When he came in we hit the gas a little bit offensively.”
• Gard mentioned a couple of times that he thought Loyola was going to win a bunch of games in MVC play.
• On what Wahl brings off the bench, “He’s done that a lot, bringing energy to the floor defensively. He brings an aggressive mentality...[Anderson and Wahl] add some juice to us in a variety of ways.”
• On settling for jumpers early and the slow start, “We got too jump shot happy...that’s why it got to 7-0.”

Micah Potter

• On struggling to finish around the rim, “Our two-point percentage wasn’t great today, but that’s something we’ll work on in practice.”
• Potter got personal scouting reports from his fiancee, a Loyola volleyball player, such as who each player on the Ramblers was dating, but no basketball scouting reports.
• On Jonathan Davis and what he brings to the team off the bench, “He’s a great energy guy.” Potter went into far more detail about the things he liked about Davis’ game including: his athleticism, his defense, his play in transition and his ability to get to the basket.

Jonathan Davis

• On what he tries to bring to the court every game, “I try to provide energy off the bench.”
• On playing these tougher non-conference games and how they’ll prepare him for the Big Ten, “Yeah, you know, the Big Ten is one of the best if not the best conference to play in the country and I knew we’d be playing a lot of high-level teams and that’s why I came here.”
• He noted that he emphasizes going after offensive rebounds in every game he’s playing in.