Leuer, Taylor help Wisconsin rout NC State 87-48
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin's defense had another stifling performance. This time, Jon Leuer and Jordan Taylor made sure the Badgers held up their end of the bargain on offense, too.
After a string of poor shooting performances in a holiday tournament, Wisconsin hit half its attempts Wednesday to hand North Carolina State its worst loss in 11 years, 87-48 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Leuer scored 22 points and had 11 rebounds, Taylor added 21 points and Wisconsin used a 23-0 run straddling halftime to rout the Wolfpack.
"Jon was being more aggressive, everybody was being more aggressive," Taylor said. "I think it was just a team effort as far as aggressiveness goes."
Wisconsin (5-2) hit 28 of 56 shots from the field and rebounded from a loss to Notre Dame in the finals of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla. on Sunday night. Defensively, the Badgers held the Wolfpack (4-2) scoreless for more than 10 minutes and limited them to 31 percent shooting.
Wisconsin hasn't lost consecutive games since January 2009 and is 70-5 at the Kohl Center against nonconference opponents under coach Bo Ryan.
N.C. State didn't help itself much, missing 11 straight shots and committing seven turnovers to fall behind 52-21 before Scott Wood's steal and layup ended the stretch with 16:24 left.
"I don't think we handled it well, I don't think we handled it well at all," N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said. "Tentative, bad decisions, a couple of times just not ready to make the pass that was there on time."
It was the Wolfpack's worst beating since a 46-point loss at Maryland in 1999.
Wisconsin, which came in allowing just 54 points a game, was ahead 15-11 when it turned up the defensive pressure by forcing three straight turnovers. After Lorenzo Brown's layup cut the Badgers' lead to 29-21, N.C. State went cold.
The Wolfpack failed to score the final 6:36 of the half and when it appeared they'd get an easy bucket, like on C.J. Leslie's drive to the hoop, the Badgers defense would recover as Keaton Nankivil blocked the layup attempt.
That allowed Wisconsin to open up a huge lead by scoring the final 15 points before the break.
Leuer's jumper with just under a minute to play doubled up the score at 42-21 and Taylor added another easy basket for a 44-21 halftime lead.
After the break, Taylor and Leuer picked up where they left off. Leuer's basket with 17:16 to go made it 52-21 and Wisconsin went up by as many as 43 down the stretch.
Taylor made sure to rib Leuer about the performance afterward.
"Double-double ... the superstar, Jonny Leuer," Taylor said with a big smile on his face as they sat down at the podium.
There were a lot of stars for the Badgers, but N.C. State is still without its biggest one. Last season's top scorer and rebounder, Tracy Smith, remains out after arthroscopic knee surgery on Nov. 19. Lowe said he hoped Smith would return in 10 to 12 days.
Freshmen Brown, Leslie and Ryan Harrow account for nearly half of the Wolfpack's scoring. Those three combined to shoot 5 of 28 on Wednesday.
"It's just a learning curve for them. I know it's going to come around for them," Wood said. "It's just tough. Every person on this team was the star of their high school team, and then coming here you've just got to kind of step into a role."
The Badgers beat N.C. State in their only other meeting in the 2005 NCAA tournament in Syracuse, N.Y. The Wolfpack travel back to the scene of that game, facing the eighth-ranked Orange on Saturday to finish this two-game trip.
Wisconsin plays five of its next six at home, with the road game just 75 miles away at Marquette on Dec. 11.