UW 84, Indiana 64: Badgers snap three-game losing streak in a big way

MADISON -- The Wisconsin Badgers' three-game losing streak came to a resounding end on Saturday afternoon at the Kohl Center.

Led by a career-high 24 points from Kobe King, UW dispatched the Indiana Hoosiers with a decisive 84-64 beatdown in the teams' Big Ten opener.

Nate Reuvers added 20 points and Aleem Ford 13, while Brevin Pritzl and D'Mitrik Trice finished just shy of double figures with nine and eight points, respectively, as UW shot a season-best 53.6% in beating Indiana for the 17th consecutive time in Madison.

The victory was also the Badgers' 15th in their last 17 Big Ten openers.

"It was great to see the ball go in, see guys smiling after the last couple weeks," UW coach Greg Gard said. "I knew we were much better than we had played in terms of the offensive production.

"This afternoon we were able to get some things going, get a little pace. Thought we took good shots, moved the ball. Really unselfish. Took care of the ball, and obviously did a lot of good things."

Playing their first home game since Nov. 21, the Badgers quickly put their recent shooting woes behind them in the early going. Three-pointers from King, Ford and Reuvers keyed a 14-0 run that opened a 19-4 lead with 13 minutes 38 seconds left in the first half.

BOX SCORE: UW 84, Indiana 64

UW stretched its advantage to 28-11 by the 7:24 mark after scoring on four consecutive possessions, including a pair of baskets from King.

The Hoosiers finally got their offense going a bit at that point. But with King scoring on a drive and a dunk and Ford knocking down two more threes — giving him a season-high three in what wound up being 16 first-half minutes — the Badgers maintained their comfortable margin.

King's jumper with 2:03 to play before halftime left him one point shy of his career high with 17 points, and a Brad Davison layup on an IU goaltend sent UW into intermission with its largest lead at 47-27.

The Badgers shot 62.5% and knocked down 6 of 13 threes (46.2%) with Reuvers chipping in with 11 points and Ford with nine.

IU, playing its first road game of the season and coming off a victory over No. 17 Florida State that ran its record to 8-0, shot just 33.3%.

"We definitely build off each other, hitting shots like that," said Reuvers, who was two points shy of tying his career high, set against St. Mary's on Nov. 5. "The crowd was getting into it, too. We were playing aggressive."

It was more of the same to start the second half, as the Badgers scored nine of the first 11 points. King opened with a pair of free throws that gave him 19 points and a new personal high-water mark, and Pritzl's three with 15:36 remaining made it 59-31.

The lead grew to 30 at 61-31 after a pair of free throws from Tyler Wahl. The only mystery from that point was whether UW would best its 20-point margin of victory against McNeese State on Nov. 13.

It wound up tying it, despite shooting just 41.7% in the second half.

"Credit to Wisconsin — they hadn't been home in a while and coming off a few tough ones, I knew we were going to deal with a sharp group that was ready. And they were," Indiana coach Archie Miller said.

"Very sharp offensively. We didn't have a whole lot of resistance. And them being able to get off to a good start shooting the ball probably alleviated a little bit of pressure off their back since they hadn't been shooting as well (in the previous) two weeks.

"Our team did not play well on either end of the floor. We weren't very good, and Wisconsin had a lot to do with it."

King hit 10 of 15 shots in 29 minutes, and the Badgers' guard play across the board was solid even with Davison tying a season low with two points.

The redshirt sophomore's previous career highs of 18 points, five field goals and 12 field goal attempts came on Nov. 8 against Eastern Illinois. He'd scored a combined 17 points in his previous two games.

"I keep trying to remind myself, so I'll remind everyone else — he's on the younger end of the scale, so there's going to be some ups and downs," said Gard of the La Crosse Central product. "There's going to be times when he's really good and there's going to be times when he's inconsistent.

"For him, trying to find that same, aggressive mind set but also playing under control and making good decisions (is the key). And I thought today, for the most part, he did a really good job of that."

UW also remedied its turnover issues, committing only four after giving the ball away a combined 29 times in its previous two losses against Richmond and New Mexico.

"This group is still trying to find their way a little bit," said Gard. "I'm happy with what we've done defensively. We were much better today taking care of the ball. But I think we're still trying to find what's right for us.

"We were much more aggressive today. We moved much better, we cut much better. Is that because we're sitting at home (at the Kohl Center)? I would hope not. But that's the challenge, is now we've got to take this and move forward with it."