BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — Khalil Iverson played only nine minutes in the first half here Tuesday night. He didn't take a shot. But the gravity-defying 6-foot-5 sophomore did his homework and it paid off with a ferocious slam in the second half of Wisconsin's 82-55 win over Penn State at the Kohl Center.
Although the Badgers were firmly in control of the game — having built a 55-41 lead on the strength of a 13-2 run following intermission — Iverson injected some energy into the building, and his own game, by dunking Bronson Koenig's in-bounds lob over the Nittany Lions' Terrence Samuel.
"I told him (Koenig) in the first half that the lob might be open — just look at me," said Iverson, who had been studying how Penn State was defending out-of-bounds plays under its own basket. "We made eye contact, he threw it up, I had room to jump and if I get that …"
Look out below.
Samuel, a member of UConn's 2014 national championship team, never left his feet. Forty-five seconds later, Iverson got a floor burn steal after outhustling Payton Banks to a loose ball. Iverson casually flipped it up to Nigel Hayes who threw a long pass to D'Mitrik Trice for an uncontested lay-up.
On the next offensive possession, Trice got the ball on the left wing to Iverson who buried a shot from beyond the arc for only his second 3-pointer of the season — his first came in a win at Marquette where he scored a career-high 16 points. It was only his fourth triple (4-of-20) in 54 games at Wisconsin.
"The dive on the floor gave us a spark," Iverson said, "and it gave me a little confidence."
Over that 82-second span, Iverson had a dunk, a steal and a triple.
"He can help us in a lot of different ways," said UW associate head coach Lamont Paris. "He can help by attacking and slashing — he has improved off the dribble. With his physical presence, he's so strong, he could be a guy around the basket where we could throw the ball to him down there."
But he admitted that Iverson is not yet at that point in his post-up game.
"Some of the things that he contributes most are the tremendous plays," Paris said. "Like some of the rebounds he has gotten. Like some of the times he has made hard cuts to the basket and we've found him. Like some of the transition opportunities that have presented themselves.
"He has made some spectacular plays and really sparked us."
Iverson is striving to become more consistent in his contributions. He has not scored more than six points in the Big Ten. He played just 11 minutes against both Michigan and Minnesota. He didn't attempt a shot against the Wolverines. He made 1-of-2 against the Gophers with one rebound.
"Personally, I'll never stop competing, no matter what," said Iverson, who has scored in double-figures three times. "If I'm not scoring, I'm not going to quit on myself. I'll always keep doing the same thing I do every single day with the same mindset. I know my role."
Near the end of the first half, Gard called a timeout and reminded everybody in the huddle of the role that they had to play on defense to eliminate some of the open looks the Nittany Lions were getting in transition. Shep Garner and Banks had combined for five triples (5-of-8).
Gard re-enforced his message and re-emphasized transition defense at halftime.
"Probably nobody in the country works on that more than us from October on," Gard said, "and we have to have some pride in that. And they did. They responded.
"It starts on the offensive end with taking care of the ball and getting good shots and I thought we did a much better job in the second half of that and finished strong at the rim."
Happ got two quick baskets; the second one was the result of an extended possession thanks to Vitto Brown, who out-muscled freshman Lamar Stevens for a rebound on the right block. That prompted an attitude-adjustment timeout from coach Patrick Chambers, who was visibly upset with Stevens.
The Badgers ended up outscoring the Nittany Lions, 19-5, over the first six-plus minutes.
"They scored in bunches and we need to learn how to respond to runs by great teams," Chambers said. "It's pick your poison. If you're going to take away Happ and Hayes, well then, Koenig is going to take advantage of you, (Zak) Showalter and Brown too."
Chambers singled out the maturity of Wisconsin's four seniors.
"They've been there before," he said. "Been there, done that. Our inexperience showed."
Some Kohl Center carry-outs:
- Defensively, the Nittany Lions opened the game with true freshmen guarding the UW's two leading scorers: Tony Carr was on Koenig and Stevens was on Hayes. Scoring from inside (4-of-4) and outside (4 triples), Koenig had 20 points, the seventh time he has scored 20 or more in 20 games.
- When Penn State broke out a 2-3 zone in the first half, the Badgers immediately went on the attack with crisp passes from Alex Illikainen to Koenig to Jordan Hill to Hayes to Happ, who scored on a backdoor layup before the defense could move to contest. Textbook execution.
- After a Trice 3-point attempt rimmed out, Illikainen was perfectly positioned in the paint to ward off a defender and punch the ball with his left hand for a put-back score. Trice was only 1-of-6 from the field, but he contributed in other ways. He was 5-of-5 from the line with 4 assists and 0 turnovers.
