Game Notes: Marquette 67, Wisconsin 65

The No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers (3-1 overall, 0-0 Big Ten) lost to the Marquette Golden Eagles (3-1 overall, 0-0 Big East) at the last second on Friday night at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Here are some fun facts, highlights and quotes from after the game.

• The loss to Marquette snaps Wisconsin’s 11 game win streak dating back to last season.
• With two blocks against the Golden Eagles, senior big man Nate Reuvers is now tied with Ethan Happ for the all-time Wisconsin record for blocked shots (154). Reuvers’ next block will leave him alone in first place.
• D’Mitrik Trice led the Badgers with 17 points and also had his first turnover the season against Marquette. His assist-to-turnover ratio is now 15-to-3 on the season. He also grabbed six rebounds, tied for team-high with Jonathan Davis.

• Freshman Jonathan Davis had a career-high 12 points and added six rebounds (four offensive) and a steal to pace the bench.
• Marquette freshman Justin Lewis had a game-high 18 points and eight rebounds to go along with his game-winning tip in.

• The Badgers had 10 turnovers (three each for Trice and Micah Potter) while they only forced 11 by Marquette.
• Wisconsin, despite how it felt while watching the game, won the rebounding battle 36-34 (13-9 on the offensive end) against MU.
• Brad Davison fouled out and the Badgers, as a team, had 22 fouls compared to only 17 for the Golden Eagles. Marquette shot 28 free throws, and made 20, while the Badgers only shot 19, and made 16.

Here are some post game quotes from head coach Greg Gard and senior forward Nate Reuvers.

Greg Gard

• Part of Gard’s opening statement, “Obviously a lot of things that I felt we had to get better at before tonight that were evident tonight. Particularly our propensity to foul too much.”
• On first half foul trouble for Reuvers, Davison and Potter, “That put us behind, so to speak, with experienced guys on the bench with foul trouble.”
• “Heck of a game from a college basketball fan perspective.”
• “A bone-headed decision” D’Mitrik Trice said this about the last play and Gard went on to discuss it further:

“Yeah, play defense. He didn’t have a straight line to the rim. You can’t take the charge when you’re not getting hit straight on. That was the right call from an official standpoint.” on Trice’s last play

• On playing tough defense, “We have to do a better job of guarding without fouling.”

Nate Reuvers

• On how the team did on the “little things”, “Not great.”
• On how an early loss like this can help the team moving forward, “How can we move forward and play our best basketball?”

Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports

• On true freshman Jonathan Davis, “He’s really aggressive out there and that’s good to see. Just wanna see his confidence keep going up.”
• “Obviously we’re fouling way too much right now and we gotta clean that up.”