Wisconsin Badgers Fall to Oregon in Eugene, 85-69
The road struggles continued for the Wisconsin Badgers on Thursday, losing to the Oregon Ducks in Eugene, 85-69. Simply put, this was a demoralizing loss that made fans want to look away as the visitors failed to generate any sort of efficient offense.
After a fantastic stretch of hoops, the Badgers have dropped their last two road games to inferior opponents. Greg Gard and company are now 19-9 on the season and 11-6 in the Big Ten, while the Ducks are now 11-17 and 4-13 in conference play.
Badgers Played an Extremely Ugly First Half
Wisconsin’s first nine shot attempts came from three-point range, and the visitors were actually up as many as nine points before the period’s halfway mark. However, what ensued can only be described as ugly.
Oregon went on a 17-7 run to go up with four minutes to go, and outscored the Badgers 18-14 in the final 13 minutes. Wisconsin finished the half shooting an abysmal 30% from the field and 28.6% from deep with three turnovers. Just six of its 33 first-half points were in the paint, showing a major reluctance to attack the basket. 21 of the Badgers’ 30 shot attempts were from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, the Ducks didn’t shoot much better in the first 20 minutes (37-30-100 shooting splits). However, they did a better job of moving the ball and getting downhill, notching 12 points in the paint and getting an extra nine from their bench.
A 7-3 run from Wisconsin put the team back up to end the half, 33-30. John Blackwell, although having shot 2-for-7 from the field in the period, led the game at the break with 10 points, four of those coming from free throws. A rough stretch of basketball still saw the Badgers winning against an inferior opponent.
The Second Half Was Even Uglier
The Badgers managed to extend their lead to five after the first five minutes, but everything completely collapsed from there. Oregon didn’t get as hot as Wisconsin got cold, with the Ducks going on a 16-2 run to take a nine point lead with eight minutes to go.
The Badgers committed 12 turnovers for the game, nine of which came in the final 20 minutes. With four minutes to go, they had posted extremely poor 30-30-80 shooting splits. It simply felt like they had dug themselves a hole after failing to hit a shot across five minutes, followed by another two-minute scoring drought.
A deep Dezdri Lindsay three-pointer absolutely put the nail in the coffin with just over three minutes to play, forcing the visitors to play catch-up. Oregon finished the game with impressive 52-47-80 shooting splits, winning the paint battle by a dramatically large margin (34-16). The Badgers shot 33.3% from the field and 31.1% from beyond the arc.
The Ducks had four players in double figures, including 20 points from Nate Bittle. Meanwhile, Blackwell led the Badgers with 22 of his own on 6-of-18 shooting from the field. Nick Boyd followed with 11 points and seven assists on 4-for-12 shooting.
