Brad Davison (Photo by David Stluka)
The Wisconsin Badgers (4-1) started strong both offensively and defensively, then held on to beat the Rhode Island Rams 73-62 at the Kohl Center on Wednesday.
The Badgers built a 17-point lead at halftime (33-16) with strong defensive work and some hot early shooting from guard Brad Davison. Davison hit his first three 3-point attempts and scored 17 of his 23 points in the first half. The Badger guard was also perfect at the free throw line, hitting all 12 of his attempts.
D’Mitrik Trice led the Badgers defensively, holding Rams guard Fatts Russell to eight points. Russell entered the game averaging 17.6 points a game but made just 3 of his 14 field goal attempts.
Nate Reuvers recorded three blocks to break Ethan Happ’s program record of 154. Reuvers now had 157, but he also spent time on the bench while dealing with foul trouble. He had just 5 points on 2 of 8 shooting from the field.
Micah Potter had 13 points and added a team high seven rebounds in the win.
Badger coach Greg Gard spent time in his post game press conference discussing his teams propensity to get into foul trouble. They committed 22 fouls in Wednesday’s win, but he said too many of them were unnecessary.
The Badgers led by as many as 22 points in the second half, but their play dipped on both ends and Rhode Island got to within eight points on two separate occasions.
Wisconsin is attempting to reschedule the Louisville game that was postponed because of COVID. The next scheduled game is Wednesday night against Northern Iowa, but that could change if the Cardinals are cleared to play.