• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Badger board work nails Wildcats

MADISON — Northwestern coach Bill Carmody made no secret that his basketball team needed to rebound better.

Ranking last in the conference in rebounding margin with a negative 1.9 and getting out rebounded 93-52 in their first two Big Ten losses, Carmody said his Wildcats needed to improve on the boards in order to have success.

The Wildcats picked a bad time, and the wrong opponent to try and improve their glass work.

Wisconsin, the third-best rebounding team in the conference, flexed its muscles against Northwestern’s 1-3-1 zone on the offensive and defensive ends Wednesday night, and out-rebounded the Wildcats 42-28 on the way to a 74-45 victory at the Kohl Center.

“We’ve got to take advantage of teams that are smaller than us and teams that play zone,” said UW senior Marcus Landry, whose 12 points helped the Badgers move to 3-0 in conference for the fourth straight season. “That’s one of the things we emphasized in practice this week was getting on the glass and getting some rebounds.”

Wisconsin (12-3, 3-0) got rebounding contributions from 11 players against Northwestern (8-5, 0-3), a season high, and moved its record to 11-0 when the Badgers grab more rebounds than their opponents.

“They went after every ball, and they seem to come up with a lot of different guys getting rebounds and chasing balls down,” Carmody said. “Even balls that were being knocked way below the rim, they seemed to come up with them.”

Nobody was more aggressive on the glass than senior Joe Krabbenhoft, Wisconsin’s team leader in that department. He grabbed eight rebounds, seven on the defensive board.

“He just gave us Joe Krabbenhoft-type basketball,” UW coach Bo Ryan said. “Joe will always come back and give you his best, and he continues to do that.”

Although Krabbenhoft did the dirty work under the glass, the real offensive star was junior Jason Bohannon. He scored 11 of his career-high 20 points in the second half, helping the Badgers extend a nine-point lead to 30.

But the number that stood out about Bohannon’s night was his work on the offensive glass. He had three offensive boards, helping Wisconsin turn 12 offensive rebounds into 11 second-chance points.

“We knew with their zone defense that if we had inside position, we would have (the rebound),” said Bohannon, who also had six rebounds and five assists, both career highs.

“It was like we were on defense. We ended up getting some good boards and being at the right place at the right time.”

The Badgers hit their average in rebounding defense, as UW entered the game allowing only 28.4 boards per game and shut down Northwestern from the beginning. The Badgers limited Northwestern to just 21 first-half points, held the Wildcats under 30 percent shooting in the second half and a season-low 45 points.

“I thought it was one of our best defensive performances of the year,” said UW sophomore Jon Leuer, who had 15 points and eight rebounds. “I felt anything they tried to do, we had an answer for it.

“I was really pleased for the effort that everyone gave.”