Game notes: Wisconsin 85, Louisville 48

The No. 12 Wisconsin Badgers (6-1 overall, 0-0 Big Ten) pummeled the No. 23 Louisville Cardinals (4-1 overall, 0-0 ACC) and clinched the Big Ten/ACC Challenge for the greatest men’s basketball conference in the land. Wisconsin opened the game hot from three and, uh, stayed hot to beat Louisville like a drum.

Here are some fun facts. quotes and highlights:

• The Badgers extended their home winning streak to 14 games, the longest active home win streak in the Big Ten.
• Wisconsin has won 21 consecutive home games against non-conference opponents, a streak that began over three years ago.
• The Badgers improved to 11-11 all-time in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, equaling the most wins in the event by any Big Ten team. Minnesota, Penn State and Purdue also have 11 wins.
• UW also evened its all-time record against teams from the ACC, owning a 45-45 mark.

• Wisconsin’s 37-point margin of victory is the team’s largest win over an AP Top-25 opponent, surpassing a 32-point win over No. 25 Iowa, 82-50, on Jan. 20, 2015.
• UW’s 37-point win ranks as the team’s second-largest margin of victory in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, trailing only a 39-point win over NC State (87-48) in 2010.
• The Badgers shot 64.0% (16-25) from 3-point range, the team’s highest 3FG percentage since going 12-for-18 (.667) against Arizona in the 2015 Elite Eight (3/28/15).
• Wisconsin finished with 10 turnovers. Dating back to last season, the Badgers have turned the ball over 11 or fewer times in 25 consecutive games.
• Wisconsin’s 26-point halftime lead is the largest halftime deficit the Cardinals have faced in Louisville program history.
• Wisconsin held Louisville scoreless for a stretch of 9:08 in the first half (17:52 to 8:44). The Badgers enjoyed a 16-0 run during that stretch.
• Senior G D’Mitrik Trice went a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range en route to nine points to go along with five assists and zero turnovers. Trice now has 26 assists with five turnovers (5.2 ratio) on the season.
• Senior F Micah Potter led the Badgers with 20 points and seven rebounds, going 2-3 from long range and 4-4 at the FT line.

• Senior G Brad Davison made his 100th career start, becoming the twelfth player in Wisconsin history to reach the century mark.
• Senior G Trevor Anderson equaled his highest point total as a Badger, scoring 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting (3-for-3 3FGs). He also dished three assists and zero turnovers.

Micah Potter

• On what the team has done well so far this year, “Clearly we’re shooting the ball well. Having five guys on the floor that can shoot the ball makes it easier for us.”
• “The good thing is that we’ve improved each game.”
• “We don’t want to be playing our best basketball in December we want to play our best basketball in March.”
• On coming out of halftime hot, “I was ticked first of all, I was mad I had got two fouls.”
• On Trevor Anderson, “The biggest thing that Trevor does is he does a really good job of setting up our offense and getting us moving.”
• On the importance of having good depth coming off the bench, “I don’t care what anyone else says, the Big Ten is the best league in college basketball.”

Greg Gard

• “Obviously really pleased with the way we played. We got a ton of contributions across the board.”
• “A good catapult into conference play with starts here next week.”
• On how the offense looked, “I was happy with how the ball moved.”
• On finishing up non-conference play with increasingly more challenging opponents, “I think we’ve gotten better and that’s the biggest measuring stick.”
• On Ben Carlson and Carter Gilmore not being available, “Yeah, they’re both medically not cleared to play.”
• Gard roasts NBC15’s George Balekji, again, for his awesome Christmas sweater from the last press conference.
• On keeping Louisville 30 points under their season scoring average, “I thought we did a really good job of imposing our will,”