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Highlights | Full Broadcast | Badgers Down Under
SYDNEY, Australia – One of the major goals of the Wisconsin's tour Down Under was to develop depth in its young roster. Consider the trip a success.
The Badgers rounded out their international circuit with an 83-71 win over the Sydney Kings Tuesday night at the Bankstown Basketball Stadium.
Brad Davison led Wisconsin with 23 points, marking the fifth different player to lead the team in scoring during the five-game trip.
And none of those five was
Ethan Happ.
Happ did score 15 points Tuesday night and finished the trip averaging 12.0 points per game. The preseason All-American also tallied nine rebounds, seven assists and four steals against the Kings.
But on the trip, UW was led in scoring by sophomore
Brevin Pritzl in game one, junior
Andy Van Vliet in game two, sophomore
Kobe King in game three, sophomore
D'Mitrik Trice in game four and finally Davison on Tuesday night vs. Sydney.
"I think the different leading scorers shows the diversity of this team and how we can get production from a lot of different way," head coach
Greg Gard said. "The potential of this group is what has the coaching staff so excited."
Trice poured in 16 points against the Kings to go with four rebounds and four assists. He was one of four different Badgers to average double figures on the tour, finishing with 12.4 points per game. He was closely followed by Happ's 12.0 ppg, as well as 11.4 ppg from Pritzl and 11.2 ppg from Davison.
"My teammates did a great job of finding me in open spots and I did my best to create open opportunities for everyone on the floor," Davison said. "I've been working on my shot this week, so it felt good to see some go in."
In UW's previous outing, the Badgers failed to close out a tightly-contested game against a team from Australia's top division. Tuesday, they wrote a different script against another top-flight team.
Wisconsin trailed 55-50 midway through the third quarter before Davison capped a 9-2 run with a driving layup, giving the Badgers a 59-57 lead. Davison would later help UW extend the lead to 74-62 with 5:00 remaining, scoring eight consecutive points on back-to-back 3-pointers and another bucket inside. Davison had the help of another freshman during the pivotal stretch as forward
Nate Reuvers notched 10 points and six rebounds, most of which came in the second half.
"I saw maturity. I saw some better decisions," Gard said of game five compared to game four. "Obviously we made shots which helped but I think we were better in our possessions. We were cognizant of what we wanted to do with the ball and we were better organized. Being in that scenario the other night (in a loss to Melbourne United), I felt that was going to help us. In the same situation tonight, we executed better and got a more positive result."
The Badgers shot 40.0 percent from 3-point range, going 8-for-20 from deep on the night, and connected on 15-of-18 at the foul line. They also owned a decisive rebounding edge, out-working the Kings 36 to 24 on the glass, including 13 to 3 on the offensive end.
"We've gotten contributions from a lot of different areas," Gard said. "I've seen some guys that are new to the program take big steps here in the last 10 days that we've been here. I've also seen guys that have been in the program take big steps forward. I think we were able to accomplish and get out of this trip what we wanted to get out of it. Guys did a really good job of maturing as time went on. I'm proud of how they attacked the summer and this trip Down Under."
"I think we grew immensely, not only on the court but I think the biggest thing was off the court," Davison added. "We got two weeks here just to spend time with each other and get to know each other. We really bonded well on the court and off the court, so that's really going to help us as we go into the season."
