MILWAUKEE – The Wisconsin men's basketball team fell to Oklahoma 84-83 Friday at the Fiserv Forum in the Bad Boy Mowers Exhibition Series in Milwaukee. 

Junior John Blackwell dropped a game-high 20 points, adding five rebounds and three assists to boot. He got the game's first bucket on a jump-stop fadeaway jumper inside the paint, sparking an early 8-2 Bucky lead. 

The teams battled into the halftime break with Oklahoma going up 46-41. Portland transfer Austin Rapp and Blackwell accounted for over half of the Badgers' points, each having 11 before the interval. 

Despite falling short, the Badgers launched three come-from-behind runs in the second half to get the game within one. Nick Boyd consistently found himself propelling the momentum, dropping 12 second-half points. He finished with 19 points, six rebounds and three assists.  

The Badger on-ball defense was stifling Friday, forcing 16 Sooner turnovers – two shy of their 2024-25 high, when they poached 18 turnovers in an early-season matchup with Appalachian State. UW also recorded 10 steals as a team – what would've been a team-high last season. Rapp and Virginia-transfer Andrew Rohde paced the Badgers with three steals apiece. 

Rapp continued his strong form into the second half, ending up with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting. The 6-foot-10 big-man drilled three deep-balls as well. The Australian continued on his '24-25 campaign where he led the country in three-pointers made for a player 6-foot-10 or taller.

BOOOM

An Aussie three ties us at 78 with a minute to play - UW on a 8-2 run

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— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) October 25, 2025

While Rapp stretched the frontcourt, junior Nolan Winter did the dirty work inside with 10 points, all coming within the paint. The Badgers finished with 36 points in the paint, five higher than their 31.0 average from last season. 

True freshman Aleksas Bieliauskas made his unofficial UW debut, playing 13 minutes in relief of Rapp and Winter. The Lithuanian tallied six points on the day thanks to two three-pointers.

Quotable:

Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard (on the benefits of tonight's exhibition): "I think this is why we want to do these things, to get into this environment and to play against this type of team,  and get a lot of things exposed. Areas that you can't maybe learn about as in depth during practice, and to be able to come in and do this and see a team that can challenge you in different ways, I think this is great for us."

Up Next:

Wisconsin will take on UW-Platteville in the ninth-annual Garding against Cancer game on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at the Kohl Center. Tip for the Badgers' final exhibition is set for 7 p.m. and tickets are available on UWBadgers.com.