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Highlights | Full Broadcast | Badgers Down Under
MELBOURNE, Australia – One of the questions the Wisconsin men's basketball team was hoping to answer on its five-game trip Down Under was how it would replace the scoring of last season's decorated senior class, which included four of the team's top five scorers. Saturday afternoon in Melbourne, Australia, the Badgers got a glimpse of some of those options in a 75-68 win over the Hawthorn Magic.
Led by a team-high 18 points from guard
Kobe King, UW's freshman trio of King,
Brad Davison and
Nate Reuvers combined for 31 points. King went 6-for-8 from the field and 6-for-7 at the foul line, while grabbing five rebounds, including four on the offensive end.
"Kobe was really aggressive today," Davison said of his fellow freshman teammate. "He's a great player and really athletic. He got some offensive rebounds to get himself going and then he got out in transition. Whenever you can get out in transition it gets you confident and more comfortable. He took advantage of that today and played really well."
Through three games on the trip, King is Wisconsin's second-leading scorer with an average of 10.0 points per game.
Brevin Pritzl (seven points vs. Hawthorn) leads the team averaging 14.3 points per game.
The Badgers connected on 15 3-pointers in game two of the trip, an 87-53 win over the New Zealand Breakers, but went just 3-for-17 against Hawthorn. Instead, Wisconsin pounded the ball down low and made a steady parade to the free throw line, finishing 18-for-27 at the charity stripe.
"I think we attacked the rim a lot more," sophomore
D'Mitrik Trice explained. "We had 27 free throw attempts I think, so we got to the rim, drew fouls and knocked down our free throws at the end of the day."
"Our goal coming into the game was to get paint touches," Davison added. "It paid off today when the outside shots weren't falling."
Wisconsin built a 14-point lead in the second quarter, but the Magic wouldn't go away and pulled to within 46-42 by halftime. But, the Badgers limited the Magic to just eight third-quarter points to build a double-digit advantage and cruise to the win.
"We're very composed," Trice said. "As a young team, you don't find that often. We don't get too high and don't get too low. The bonding experience we've had has been valuable. We're a really together team."
Trice scored 11 points (2-3 3FGs) to go with three rebounds, two assists and five steals. Junior forward
Khalil Iverson finished with 10 points, while Davison and
Ethan Happ scored nine points each.
Next up, the Badgers face Melbourne United on Sunday before traveling to Sydney for the final game of the trip on Aug. 22. A live stream for Sunday's game vs. United
can be found here.
