The number-21 Wisconsin Badgers shooting woes continued on Thursday night, falling to 11th ranked Iowa 77-62 at the Kohl Center.
The shooting issues have plagued the Badgers for the better part of a month now and it reached new lows against the Hawkeyes when Wisconsin hit just 4 of 15 layups in the game. UW had 17 offensive rebounds, yet scored just four second chance points.
The Badgers did make 5-of-14 three-pointers in the first half, but just 19-of-22 from inside the arc.
For the game, UW made 13-of-34 three’s (38.2%), but just 21-of-70 (30%) overall. Micah Potter finished with 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting and Brad Davison hit 5-of-11 from the field, including 5-of-8 from three-point distance for 15 points.
But things were much worse for the rest of the Badgers. Aleem Ford made 2-of-10 shots and finished with 6 points. Tyler Wahl was 0-for-6, 0-for-2 from distance and 0-for-2 from the free throw line. Potter’s 23-point night meant Nate Reuvers (2-of-4 FG – 4 pts) played just over 10-minutes. D’Mitrik Trice was 3-for-15 and finished with 11 points and freshman Jonathan Davis was 1-for-9 from the field for 3-points.
The Badgers did pull to within three points at 49-46 with 9:16 left to play, but the Hawkeyes went on another run and never looked back.
The Badgers (15-8, 9-7 Big Ten) lost back-to-back games for the first time this season and fell into sixth place in the Big Ten.
The Big Ten’s leading scorer, Luka Garza, led all scorers with 30 points.
Wisconsin will return to action on Sunday at Northwestern. The Badgers beat the Wildcats by 16-points in January. Northwestern is riding a 12-game losing streak and is the only unranked team remaining on the Badgers regular season schedule with four games left to play.
The Badgers are saying all the right things and it’s true, they have to put this loss behind them and get ready for Northwestern. As far as their shooting woes, they have to keep getting good shots and try to shoot their way out of it.
The shot selection hasn’t necessarily been the bad thing, but they need to start to make shots and it’s pretty apparent that their confidence is waning. With the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments fast approaching, the Badgers are running out of time to shake out of their slump.