BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — For the second consecutive year, Illinois coach John Groce had to devote some of his postgame press conference here to Wisconsin's Khalil Iverson.
Last season, Iverson scored what was then a career-high 10 points in a 63-55 win. Groce admitted that he wasn't expecting it since Iverson had only nine points in his previous seven games.
Playing 30 minutes (which is still a career high), Iverson also had five rebounds while picking up some of the workload for Vitto Brown who was limited by an injury and played only 12 minutes.
Tuesday night, Groce got another unexpected jolt from Iverson who helped spark the Badgers to a 57-43 victory — their 11th straight in the series and fifth in a row at the State Farm Center.
"The kid …. Iverson … made a couple of big-time shots," Groce said afterwards. "He had made one 3 in conference play. He had made two the entire season. He goes 2-for-2 today.
"Give him credit," added an exasperated Groce. "He hadn't done that all year. I don't know if he's done that in his career. But he did it today."
Groce did his homework. Coming into the game, Iverson was 1-of-4 from beyond the 3-point arc in the Big Ten and 2-for-9 overall. Taking it one step further, he was 4-for-21 in 55 career games.
But he knocked down a triple in each half to finish with six points. He also had three steals and two blocked shots. Groce cited one of the steals as a critical "momentum" play in Wisconsin's favor.
Illinois had shaved a 15-point deficit to single-digits (9) early in the second half when Iverson poked the ball away from freshman guard Te'Jon Lucas who had numbers in transition.
Wisconsin converted the turnover into points with a Nigel Hayes put-back slam on what was an extended possession due to a couple of offensive rebounds. The Badgers finished with 19 of those.
Illinois kept battling and got within six points (42-36) but Zak Showalter stemmed their momentum with a 3-pointer and the Badgers delivered the knockout punch with a 9-1 run.
Groce conceded that his team wasn't able to overcome a very poor start — Wisconsin scored the first nine points and raced out to a 16-2 lead — nor some really poor shooting (16-of-58, .276).
Malcolm Hill and Jalen Coleman-Lands were a combined 6-of-23. While they may have missed some open shots, the aggressive Badgers were very sharp in their half-court rotations.
In the end, they held the Illini to 43 points — 40 under what they have been averaging at home.
As far as the State Farm Center feeling like a home away from home for Iverson ….
He wasn't having any of it.
"I don't really think anything of it," he said. "The hoops are kind of …"
Iverson wasn't sure how he wanted to complete that thought.
So, he acquiesced and said, "I feel comfortable here."
What about the 3-pointers? How does he explain those?
"Meech found me on both of them actually," Iverson said of freshman guard D'Mitrik Trice. "Just from his penetration, guys will help off and I just have to catch it and knock down a shot.
"I'm getting more confident. The guys in the locker room keep telling me to shoot it because I'm not known to shoot the ball really. Still, they say, if I'm open take the shot or cut to the hoop."
Twice, the Badgers tried to hit Iverson on backdoor cuts for lob dunks but they got derailed. "I just go out there and do what I'm told," Iverson shrugged, "and try to make good things happen."
That would also apply to 6-foot-8 forward Aaron Moesch who had played only five minutes in three Big Ten games combined. Tuesday, he logged four minutes and grabbed three offensive rebounds.
"I saw coach (Greg) Gard eyeing me up right when Nigel (Hayes) got his second foul," said Moesch, a redshirt junior from Green Bay. "I was thinking, 'Okay, okay, be ready, be ready.'"
Sure enough, Moesch got the call to enter the game late in the first half.
"Going back to last year, it's the mindset of always be ready," Moesch said. "That's something that sticks with you. No matter when (during a game) you just have to be ready."'
Gard has frequently pointed out that playing time is a reward for practicing well.
Moesch laughed because he wasn't happy with the way he practiced Monday. "Yesterday was awful," he said. "But you keep on working. Coach says if people work hard, good things will happen."
Some State Farm Center carry-outs:
- On the UW's final possession of the first half, the Badgers had five offensive rebounds: three by Moesch, one by Ethan Happ and one by Vitto Brown who scored. On the final possession of the game, they had three offensive rebounds, two by Brown, one by Happ and they ran out the clock.
- The Badgers didn't shoot their first free throws until 11:24 of the second half and Iverson missed them both. They finished just 2-of-9 from the stripe with Happ going 0-for-3. But he was efficient in every other aspect of his game with 14 points, 13 rebounds, 2 steals and multiple floor burns.
- Here's how Illinois' Malcom Hill characterized the Badgers to the Champaign News Gazette: "It's almost like the (San Antonio) Spurs. They're always playing at an '8' so you have to play at a '9' or '10' to even have a chance to win … They're probably one of the most consistent teams I've seen."
