Badgers Take Care of Stevens Point in Exhibition Play at Kohl Center

By Jackson | Posted Thursday, November 10

The Wisconsin Badgers basketball team opened their season last week with an exhibition game against Stevens Point. The Pointers had a great run last year in the Division III NCAA Tournament, making into the Sweet Sixteen. Playing a Division One opponent proved to be too tough for the neighbors to the north.

Wisconsin took care of the Pointers 80-54 in front of a home crowd of over 16,000. Kohl Center tickets were hard to come by for this game, and the final score doesn’t tell the whole story. Down just twelve points at halftime, largely due to a breakout first half performance by Dan Tillema, Stevens Point was hoping for an upset. Tillema scored nineteen points in the first half, on his way to a game high twenty-four. In the second half the Pointers fell apart, and the Badgers were successful in shutting down their hot forward. Tillema went scoreless in the first eleven minutes of the second half, and only managed five in the remaining nine minutes.

Pointers Shooting Goes Cold in Second Half

Tillema's teammates found themselves in a similar predicament. After completing sixty-two percent of their shots in the first half, the Pointers failed to match that white hot completion percentage. What really killed the Pointers was the 17-2 run that Wisconsin put together.

The Badgers were led in scoring by Ryan Evans, who had sixteen points on the night. Ben Burst, Jared Berggren, and John Gasser ended their evening with double digit scoring. Coach Bo Ryan was keeping a sharp eye on Evans and Berggren who take the place of Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil. Overall, he was happy with what he saw. If that pair can keep it up when it comes to Big Ten opponents, Wisconsin should be on their way to the NCAA tournament in 2012.