Badgers bounce back after opening loss to beat Siena
PrintMADISON—Bronson Koenig scored 23 points and Vitto Brown added a career-high 16 as No. 17 Wisconsin beat Siena 92-65 on Sunday night.
Nigel Hayes, limited to 5 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, added 14 points for the Badgers (1-1).
Nico Clareth led Siena (0-2) with 21 points, while Marquis Wright added 17.
The first 10 minutes of the game looked a lot like Wisconsin's loss Friday night to Western Illinois as the Badgers struggled to defend dribble penetration and allowed Sienna to get into a rhythm offensively. But trailing 20-18, the Saints went cold, hitting just three of their next 12 shots.
Wisconsin took control from there, punctuated by Zak Showalter's putback dunk of a missed 3-pointer just before the first-half buzzer to put the Badgers up 43-28.
The Badgers looked like a different team offensively after hitting less than 36 percent of their shots from the field and 64 percent from the free throw line and allowing Western Illinois to shoot 54 percent from the field.. With Koenig hitting 8 of 14 and Brown 5 of 10, the Badgers shot better than 58 percent from the field on Sunday and held the Saints to 39 percent.
TIP-INS
Siena: The Saints opened the season playing their first two games against the defending national champion (Duke) and the runner-up (Wisconsin), the first time any school has done that since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Wisconsin: Sunday's win kept alive Wisconsin's streak of having never lost consecutive home nonconference games under coach Bo Ryan. The Badgers are 105-9 at home in nonconference games under Ryan and have not dropped consecutive home games against teams outside the Big Ten since 1990-91 against Southern Indiana (78-66) and Nebraska (75-63).
UP NEXT
Siena: Plays Radford on Friday in Smithfield, Rhode Island
Wisconsin: Hosts North Dakota on Tuesday.