Newcomers shine at Red-White Scrimmage

Photo by: David Stluka

Newcomers shine at Red-White Scrimmage

October 09, 2022 | Men's Basketball

Klemsit and Essegian show off scoring touch

MADISON, Wis. – If Sunday's Red-White Scrimmage is an indicator of what's to come for the Wisconsin men's basketball team this season, there appears to be some scoring punch on the 2022-23 roster.

Red topped White, 55-51, in front of Badger fans Sunday afternoon, as the two teams combined to shoot 54.4%, going 14-for-34 (41.2%) from 3-point range.

A pair of newcomers, junior Max Klesmit and freshman Connor Essegian, shined in their Kohl Center debut. Klesmit led all scorers with 17 points (3-7 from 3-point range) for Team White to go along with three rebounds and two assists. Essegian led Team Red with 15 points, hitting 3-of-4 3-pointers and throwing down a dunk off a cut down the lane.

"Offensively, we put our defense in some harder decisions to make, which I think this group has the potential to do," head coach Greg Gard said. "You never know until you play, but in terms of being able to be hard to guard, this team has a lot of highly-skilled guys, we're very unselfish. I think we had 27 assists on 43 baskets today. I liked what I saw. I liked the way they competed."

"It was awesome to be out here," Klesmit said postgame. "You can just feel the love as soon as we entered, hearing the fans cheering and yelling. Excited for the season is an understatement. We're all ready to go."

The teams played two 15-minute halves with a running clock. Team Red started Chucky Hepburn, Connor Essegian, Tyler Wahl, Markus Ilver and Chris Hodges, with Luke Haertle and Ross Candelino coming off the bench. Team White opened with Kamari McGee, Jordan Davis, Max Klesmit, Carter Gilmore and Steven Crowl and was backed up by reserves Jahcobi Neath and Isaac Gard.

Wahl showed an expanded offensive repertoire, finishing with 13 points and scoring from all three levels. Wahl opened the game with a runner in the lane, knocked down a trio of 3-pointers and rounded out his stat line with three rebounds and two assists. Hepburn also poured in 12 points for Team Red.

In addition to Klesmit's 17 points, Team White leaned on 10 points from Davis and Gilmore grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. Crowl scored just six points, but dished out 6 assists.

The Badgers will officially open the season on Oct. 30 with an exhibition against UW-Eau Claire before hosting South Dakota in the regular-season opener on Nov. 7.