With the presence of Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky in the middle and his ability to pass out of the post, Wisconsin just took advantage of what Northwestern gave them Sunday night.
Hitting on seven of its first 10 attempts from distance, No. 4 Wisconsin raced out to a quick lead against Northwestern en route to cruising to a 81-58 victory in Evanston in its first foray into road life in the Big Ten.
Four Badgers scored in double figures–Kaminsky, Sam Dekker, Nigel Hayes and Duje Dukan—as they extended their winning streak to seven games in light of their only loss on the year, an 80-70 home loss to Duke on Dec. 3 as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
All told, Wisconsin (14-1, 2-0) converted 12 of its 25 three-point attempts as five different players hit from beyond the arc, led by Dekker’s four triples.
Five Badgers scored at least eight points.
Dekker, who recorded a team-high 16 points along with Kaminsky, converted four of his five three-point attempts in the first half on his way to a 12-point first half as the Badgers led by as many as 22 points in the opening 20 minutes of play.
“(Teams) don’t like dare me, but I think they’d rather have me sometimes shoot the outside shot instead of getting an easy bucket at the rim,” Dekker said. “But I feel like I started the year kind of slow from the outside shot. But as of late, my shot, I feel pretty comfortable and I’m getting into a good rhythm. So hopefully it’ll keep the confidence high and just keep shooting.”
Kaminsky, a 2011 Benet grad, came in averaging 16.6 points and 8.4 rebounds a game and had a well-balanced first half by chipping in with five points, six rebounds and six assists despite picking up two early fouls.
The 7-foot, 234-pound Kaminsky, named the 2011 Co-Naperville Sun Prep Basketball Player of the Year along with former teammate and Northwestern point guard David Sobolewski, picked it up a bit in the second half on way to finishing with 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
“I’ve been in (foul trouble) a bunch of times before, so I knew the deal. Coach (Bo Ryan) has pretty set rules on what happens if you pick up two in the first half,” said Kaminsky, who recorded his seventh double-double of the season. “So I knew I was going to be done in the first half, but we had a pretty, solid and comfortable lead at that point. So I wasn’t too upset.”
Northwestern (10-5, 1-1) struggled to get much of anything going in light of the Badgers’ early blitz from the outside as it only shot 28.6 percent from the field in the first half and just under 40 percent for the game.
Coming into Sunday riding a four-game winning streak, which included opening Big Ten play with a road victory at Rutgers, the Wildcats got a game-high 17 points from Tre Demps while Bryant McIntosh added 13 points.
“In a game like this, a lot has to go right for us, you know, to have a chance in a game like this,” Northwestern head coach Chris Collins said. … “It’s a process and you got to play in games like this to learn what it takes. This is a great game for my young guys to play in and to play against a team that’s as good as anybody out there and that’s tough and physical, smart. … When a team is that potent, can hit you from so many different angles, you almost have to choose kind of what direction you want to go. You’re not going to take everything away.”
