Trice leads balanced victory over Sooners
Stop Ethan Happ and you stop Wisconsin.
On the surface that may appear to be a sound and effective strategy.
Yet after watching UW dismantle Oklahoma, 78-58, Thursday in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, teams might think otherwise.
“Nobody is more thankful for your effort than me and our coaching staff,” head coach Greg Gard told his players after the victory. “In how you guys approach everything, how you guys have bonded together.
“You got to keep going. OK? You guys are only scratching the surface in terms of how good you have a chance to be.”
UW (5-0) advanced to the title game with four players scoring at least 12 points, and Happ wasn’t the leader of the pack.
That honor went to redshirt sophomore guard D’Mitrik Trice, whose play on both ends of the floor has been fabulous.
“We’ve got a great player in Ethan, very unselfish,” redshirt sophomore guard Kobe King on UW’s postgame radio show on WIBA-AM in Madison. “That is one thing that really helps our team. As an All-American, he really trust us and finds us for open shots and we all count on each other to knock them down.”
Trice, who missed all 5 of his threepoint attempts in the quarterfinals against Stanford, went 3 for 3 in the first half Thursday to help UW take a threepoint lead. He hit his first 7 three-pointer tries and finished 7 of 8 from beyond the arc and had a college-high 25 points.
He is shooting 60.6 percent from three-point range (20 of 33) through five games.
“He has really been on fire, especially from the three,” UW assistant Dean Oliver said on WIBA. “And that just opens up his game so much.”
King came off the bench and contributed 14 points. He hit 3 of 5 three-pointers and 5 of 8 shots overall.
Happ went scoreless for the first 19 minutes 15 seconds but finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. He has recorded a double-double in every game this season.
UW plays in the title game at 1 p.m. Friday against No. 4 Virginia, which beat Dayton, 66-59, in the second semifinal Thursday.
UW led by three after one half with Happ scoring only two points and then burned the Sooners (4-1) in the final 20 minutes.
The Badgers hit 8 of 9 three-pointers (88.9 percent) and 16 of 27 shots overall (59.3 percent) in the second half. They finished 14 of 22 from three-point range (63.6 percent) and 28 of 59 overall (47.5 percent).
“I think we are a versatile team,” King said. “Yesterday they were kind of taking away the perimeter. Today they left it more open and tried to take away Ethan more and guys were ready to knock down shots.
“That is one reason we shot the ball so well today.”