BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
LAHAINA, Maui — After Wisconsin dominated the glass as a team, Bronson Koenig and Ethan Happ could have dominated the post-game message as teammates.
After all, they combined for 29 points in the Badgers 73-57 victory over Georgetown here Tuesday as Koenig had 20 and Happ had 19 to go along with 15 rebounds matching his career high.
But instead of making it about themselves, Koenig and Happ made the verbal equivalent of the extra pass by drawing Vitto Brown and Khalil Iverson into the conversation.
"They were huge for us today," Koenig said. "They kind of sparked our run a little bit (in the second half) — Khalil with the fast-break dunks and rebounds; and Vitto with the pick-and-rolls."
Both were non-factors in the first half. Both played 10 minutes without taking a shot.
After a painful intermission break, at least for the fans who had to sit through a bad Elvis impersonator, Brown and Iverson took advantage of their second-chance opportunities.
Brown finished with 9 points (3-of-4 from beyond the arc), 3 assists, 2 rebounds and a block.
Iverson ended up with 10 points, 7 rebounds and a block.
"They were big, huge," Happ said. "When Vitto was hitting those 3's and you saw me on the bench, I was up in the air and jumping up and down.
"To have those two spark us when me, Nigel (Hayes) and Bronson came out, that could be one of the reasons why we won the game."
The main reason was the rebounding: Wisconsin 50, Georgetown 21.
Moreover, the Badgers had 20 offensive rebounds, just one shy of the Hoyas' overall total.
"When the shot goes up, right away you have to work for position," said Happ, who had 11 rebounds in a loss to Georgetown last season. "It's about who wants it more."
Hoyas' coach John Thompson was blunt in suggesting that his players didn't want it enough, despite the return of 7-foot center and captain Bradley Hayes who missed the first four games.
"We have to get some guys that understand that it's not just about points and minutes and care about all aspects of the game," said Thompson, who got very little from his frontline starters.
That would include 6-10 Isaac Copeland and 6-10 Jesse Govan. Neither had a rebound.
For that matter, Thompson didn't get much from his leading scorer in the second half. Rodney Pryor had only three points. He had 11 in the first half. Pryor had 32 in their season opener.
Zak Showalter and Iverson were principally responsible for containing Pryor, a graduate transfer from Robert Morris. They also got help from the "bigs" on switches to stymie Pryor.
It speaks to the big picture — knowing your role, knowing who you are as a team and teammate.
Thompson, in fact, spoke to just that.
"Each person knows and has accepted their role," he said of the Badgers. "Each person knows what they have to do to help and has accepted what they have to do to help their team win.
"And you see that on the court. And then, the traditional Wisconsin is that they don't make mistakes. They don't beat themselves. You have to go out and find a way to beat them."
The Badgers are still turning it over too much to satisfy head coach Greg Gard.
They had eight turnovers in the first half, but only five in the second.
"It was a step in the right direction," Gard said.
So was the start to the second half. Wisconsin broke open the game when Happ went on a 6-0 run that forced Thompson to burn a timeout.
The highlight was Happ leading a two-on-one fast break with Koenig as his trailer. Instead of giving up the ball to the guard, which is conventional thinking in transition, Happ kept it and dunked.
Koenig was asked if he had ever been in that situation before where he was the "decoy."
"I don't think so to be honest," he said, laughing. "I've never been on a two-on-one break where the center doesn't give me the ball. But it's fine because he converted. I'm happy for him."
Koenig and Happ exchanged some good-natured banter on the sequence.
"I was just dribbling and the guy (Jagan Mosely) tried to slide over and take a charge," said Happ, who then quoted from the basketball gospel. "Eyes on the rim, eyes on the rim."
Wednesday, the eyes will be on the prize — the Maui Invitational championship.
Here are some observations from the Lahaina Civic Center:
- The Badgers last faced North Carolina in the Sweet 16 of the 2015 NCAA tournament. Sam Dekker had a career-high 23 points and 10 rebounds in a 79-72 win in Los Angeles.
- Showalter came off the bench to ignite a second-half rally with a six-point outburst. Hayes had 12 points and six rebounds; Koenig had nine points, four assists and zero turnovers, but fouled out.
- Under Roy Williams, the Tar Heels are 15-2 in Maui and have won three championships here. Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is the only coach to have won it more times (5).
- North Carolina has four players all averaging around 15 points: Isaiah Hicks, Joel Berry, Justin Jackson and Kennedy Meeks. Top sub Tom Bradley is also in double-digits (11).
- Jackson is 6-8, Hicks is 6-9, Meeks is 6-10, Bradley is 6-11.
- UW will be challenged on the glass. Gard called the effort "relentless" against the Hoyas.
- During one flurry in the paint, it was like bumper cars with Brown and Iverson crashing into bodies and Charles Thomas coming up with the ball and scoring.
- Iverson had some rim-rattling dunks reminiscent of last season's Iowa game. One was the result of a bounce feed from Brown who used dribble penetration and a jump stop to break down the defense.
- The Badgers closed out the first half with Hayes and Showalter scoring on back-to-back possessions from the low right block on post-ups. Both victimized Pryor.
- All five UW players got a "touch" on a perfectly executed half-court passing clinic. D'Mitrik Trice drove the right lane line and kicked the ball to Alex Illikainen at the top of the key. Illikainen moved it to Koenig on the left wing. Koenig kept it moving to Showalter in the left corner. Dribbling the baseline, Showalter drew Happ's defender and dropped it off to Happ for a lay-up. Unselfishness personified.
