Cavaliers hold off Badgers for title
Wisconsin coach Greg Gard and his players will have to settle for a productive three-day run rather than a tournament title.
Facing No. 4 Virginia in the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis on Friday in the Bahamas, UW fell behind by 15 at halftime, battled back to within five points in the final three-plus minutes but suffered a 53-46 loss.
“Extremely proud of how we battled back,” Gard told reporters after the loss. “I thought we showed something in that second half.”
UW (5-1) lost to Virginia for the second consecutive season. The Cavaliers (6-0) held UW to 31.3 percent shooting in a 4937 victory last season in Charlottesville.
On Friday, UW hit just 2 of 11 threepointers (18.2 percent) and 21 of 48 shots overall (43.8 percent).
Ethan Happ was magnificent for UW and finished with 22 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. He hit 11 of 19 shots but also
committed six turnovers.
“He is the best player in the country,” sophomore guard Brad Davison said afterward on UW’s post-game radio show on WIBA-AM in Madison. “Everyone on our team knows it. He does a lot for us. … He just battled all game long.”
Senior Khalil Iverson added seven points and six rebounds, but no other UW player scored more than five points.
Led by guard D’Mitrik Trice at a sizzling 60.6 percent, UW entered the day shooting 44.8% from three-point range.
Virginia’s defense had made threepoint shooting a frustrating endeavor for its first five foes, however. Those teams shot a combined 28.9 percent from beyond the arc.
Guarded mostly by quick freshman Kihei Clark, Trice went 0 for 2 on threepointers and 2 for 9 overall and finished with five points.
“People are going to key on ‘Meech,’ ” UW assistant Howard Moore said on WIBA. “People are going to try to cut him off and not allow him to get going.”
Davison hit just 1 of 4 threes and 2 of 8 shots overall and finished with five points. Kobe King added five points, but Nate Reuvers managed only two points and three rebounds in 30 minutes. Brevin Pritzl played only four minutes and missed his lone three-point attempt.
“We need to get Nate Reuvers going a little bit more,” Moore said. “I told him after the game we’ve got to get him rebounding better and being more of a presence in the paint and scoring on the post and not just settling for threes. We’ve got to get Brevin back.”
D’Andre Hunter (16.2 points per game), Ty Jerome (14.6) and Kyle Guy (12.8) had combined to average 43.6 points in the Cavaliers’ first five games.
That trio combined to hit 11 of 19 shots and score 27 points in the first half Friday to carry Virginia to a 33-18 lead. The shots didn’t fall as frequently in the second half, but Hunter finished with 20 points, Jerome added 11 and Guy finished with nine.
“We said this was a respect game,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said during a postgame interview on ESPN. “They’re really good and ‘Gardo’ coaches them up. Our guys knew we were going to have to be great.”
UW entered the day averaging 8.2 turnovers but committed 13 against the Cavaliers. Virginia, which committed five turnovers, turned UW’s mistakes into 12 points and had eight second-chance points to just two for UW.
“The way Coach said: In a seven-point loss you’d love to have 13 more shots at the hoop,” Davison said.
After falling into a 33-18 hole in the first half, UW battled within five points four times. Each time Virginia answered.
“There’s a big difference in this team from last year,” Happ told reporters. “The experience that the young guys got last year and the togetherness we’ve been playing with is a big turnaround from last year.”