Landry, Badgers make some history
MADISON, Wis. -- On a night when its program celebrated a bit of history, the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team made sure to create a little more, even if it is unofficial.
Marking the 10th anniversary of the opening of their gleaming multi-purpose Kohl Center, the 17th-ranked Badgers defeated Northwestern 62-50 Saturday night behind a career-high 21 points from Marcus Landry.
He became the fifth different Wisconsin player to lead the team with at least 20 points in the Badgers' first five Big Ten games.
"I don't think it's ever happened in the history of the game. And if it has, I want to know the team, I want to know the year, and I'm going to call the coach," said Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, whose program has never had seen such a streak of scoring balance before. "Would anybody in their wildest dream ever think that that would happen?"
Landry, whose previous career best was 19 points against Eastern Kentucky two years ago, scored 15 of his points in the second half as the Badgers (15-2, 5-0 Big Ten) nearly doubled their first-half output.
The 6-foot-7 junior forward was 6 of 7 from the field and 9 of 10 from the free-throw line.
The Badgers' leading scorers in their first four Big Ten games were Jon Leuer (25 points vs. Michigan), Brian Butch (22 vs. Iowa), Trevon Hughes (22 vs. Illinois) and Michael Flowers (23 vs. Penn State). All but Leuer are starters.
"It just shows how unselfish we are as a team. Any guy can score any amount of points on this team because we're so well-balanced," Landry said. "It's a weapon of ours -- other teams can't focus on one or two or three guys. They have to focus on all five guys on the court."
Northwestern (6-9, 0-5), with its tempo-dulling Princeton offense and 1-3-1 zone defense, played even with the Badgers throughout the first half, which ended with Wisconsin holding a 22-20 lead.
But the Badgers jumped out of the gate quickly in the second half with a 13-2 run.
Wisconsin stretched its advantage to as many as 15 points, and remained up by at least eight the rest of the game.
"I thought we controlled the game pretty nicely in the first half," said Wildcats coach Bill Carmody. "But then coming out in the second half, they just really defended, pressed down on us. It quickly went from a close game at half to a 10-point game. We sort of hung around a little bit, but we couldn't get them to the point where they felt uncomfortable."
Krabbenhoft added 13 points and 9 rebounds and Flowers scored 11, helping the Badgers overcome a lack of production from their two leading scorers.
Butch and Hughes, who each came into the game averaging better than 13.5 points, combined for only 11 Saturday night.
Butch scored 4 of his 5 points in the first half, and Hughes scored all 6 of his points on free throws in the final 5:07.
Butch, a 6-11 senior forward, only attempted 2 field goals all night and Hughes, a sophomore point guard, missed all 6 shots he took from the floor.
Wisconsin attempted nearly three times as many foul shots (37-13) as the Wildcats, though the Badgers were only able to convert 24 attempts (64.9 percent). Wisconsin also owned a 29-21 edge on the glass.
"They're the more aggressive team," Carmody said. "They were getting the ball inside and they've got a couple big guys in there that are pretty hard for us to handle."
Michael Thompson led Northwestern (6-9, 0-5) with 16 points.