A 'typical Wisconsin game' yields hard-earned victory No. 30

Rob Schultz  —  3/21/2008 8:26 am

OMAHA, Neb. -- The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team is like modern art to many folks. They look at it, stare at it and study it but never really understand why anybody is a fan of it.

The Badgers' 71-56 victory over Cal State Fullerton during a first-round NCAA tournament game Thursday night at the Qwest Center is a great example.

There wasn't much anyone would call artistic or SportsCenter-worthy about their school-record tying 30th win of the season and 11th straight, which included shooting just 42.4 percent overall (25-of-59) and 18.8 percent from 3-point range (3-of-16).

That suited the Badgers just fine.

"This was a typical Wisconsin game. We got everybody involved and we took care of everything we needed to take care of and you get a win," said senior forward Brian Butch, who led the Badgers with 14 points and nine rebounds. "It's not pretty, but if you look back at all 30 wins we've had, they weren't pretty either."

The No. 3-seeded Badgers (30-4) advanced to a second-round Midwest Regional game here Saturday against 11th-seeded Kansas State (21-11) by dominating the second half with their usual recipe of free throws, rebounds, balanced scoring and shut-down, close-out defense.

Junior forward Joe Krabbenhoft and sophomore guard Jason Bohannon each had 13 points to join Butch in double figures. Junior Marcus Landry had a career-high 12 rebounds for the Badgers, who outrebounded the smaller Titans 50-27 overall and 18-7 on the offensive end.

The 14th-seeded Titans (24-9), who came into the game as the nation's fifth-highest scoring team at 82.7 points per game, were held to a season low by a Wisconsin team that leads the nation in scoring defense. Their only highlight was a 31-point effort by sharpshooting 5-11 junior guard Josh Akognon, which tied his career high.

"So it was another defensive accomplishment for us tonight," said senior guard Michael Flowers, who had his hands full all game trying to stop Akognon. "Defense wins championships."

But this was not an easy victory by any means.

The Titans trailed just 30-28 at the half and looked poised to pull off the biggest upset of the first day of the tournament when they took the lead after scoring the first three points of the second half.

All that did was put a spark in the Badgers that led to a 15-3 run and a 45-34 lead with 12 minutes, 51 seconds to go.

"Once you get to that point where you put out so much energy, it's that much harder to get over that hill," Akognon said. "Tonight was that. We'd get close, and they'd hit a big shot and get their momentum back up. For us, that was just a killer."

Defensively, the Badgers limited the Titans to just 1-of-10 shooting during that run. They went on to hold the high-flying Titans to no fast-break points in the second half after allowing just five in the first half.

"I think we rebounded a little better and took away some of their driving lanes they had in the first half," said senior center Greg Stiemsma after the Badgers outrebounded the Titans 29-10 in the second half. "They got to the rim quite a few times in the first half. We kind of made them take some tough shots and once they got a couple of charges on them they hesitated to go in."

Offensively, the Badgers forced Fullerton to foul as guards Flowers, Bohannon and Trevon Hughes used dribble penetration to counter the Titans' aggressive perimeter defense that forced 17 UW turnovers. When Hughes and Flowers weren't driving for layups-and-ones, they drew fouls on the perimeter.

"We did a great job of that in the second half," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "It forced them to use their hands. They used their hands a lot. But you have to expose that to the officials to get the calls and that's what we did."

After attempting just five free throws (and making four) in the first half, the Badgers attempted 20 (and made 14) in the second half. With 9:53 left, they fouled out Frank Robinson, who was the only other Titan in double figures with 11 points.

But the Titans didn't go down quietly. The Badgers could never stretch their lead because Akognon kept making shots even though Flowers was draped all over him.

After a Butch score in the paint gave Wisconsin a 54-41 lead with 9:21 left, Akognon, a transfer from Washington State, scored the next 13 points for the Titans. That included back-to-back 3-pointers that made it 62-54 with 3:48 left.

"It was all on No. 1 out there," said Flowers, referring to the uniform number of Akognon, who scored 19 of the Titans' 28 second-half points. "We tried to contain him but he did a great job of pulling up and using the screens and getting to the hole and sliding by Joe and Marcus trying to take a charge on him. Everything we threw at them, he had an answer for."

Eventually Akognon wore down just like the rest of the Titans, who shot just 36.2 percent overall (21-of-58) and 33.3 percent from 3-point range (7-of-21).

"We've played a lot of games this year, we've seen a lot of things. We've been down, we've come back from deficits. This team is mature and we showed it tonight," said Flowers, whose strong all-around game included nine points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. "We didn't panic, we stayed focused and we stayed to the game plan."

By the numbers

0.80: Cal State Fullerton's average points per possession.

1.01: Wisconsin's average points per possession.

11: Consecutive wins by Wisconsin.

12: Rebounds by Marcus Landry, a career high.

18-15: Wisconsin's edge in second-chance points despite owning an 18-7 edge in offensive rebounds.

19: Games this season in which Wisconsin has forced its opponent to shoot below 40 percent overall. The Badgers are 18-1 in those games.

19-0: Wisconsin's edge in points scored by the bench.

30: Victories ties last year's school record for most in one season.

31: Points scored by Cal State Fullerton's Josh Akognon, the most against the Badgers since Winthrop's Torrell Martin scored 31 on Dec. 4, 2006 at the Kohl Center.

36-24: Wisconsin's edge in points scored in the paint.

56: Points scored by Cal State Fullerton, a season low.

170: Michael Flowers' career steals after picking up two more against the Titans. He is third on the all-time list.

661: Career rebounds by Brian Butch after grabbing nine against the Titans. He is ninth on the school's all-time list.

1,095: Career points by Butch after scoring 14 against the Titans. He moved passed Ken Siebel into 24th place on the school's all-time list.

Rob Schultz  —  3/21/2008 8:26 am