Badgers Down Wildcats, Move to Sweet Sixteen

[undeterred]

OMAHA, Neb.
Behind a career-high tying 25 points from Trevon Hughes and a career-high 14 points from Greg Stiemsma, the No. 3 seed Wisconsin men’s basketball team shut down No. 11 seed Kansas State 72-55 Saturday afternoon at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb.

With the win, the Badgers set a new school record with 31 wins and will be playing in the Midwest Regional Semifinal game at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich. on Friday, March 28. Game time will be set by the morning of Monday, March 24.

Take a look back at the game with the Courtside Blog here. http://www.uwbadgers.com/blogs/default.aspx?postid=813

Stiemsma and Hughes were the engine behind the Badgers’ second round win on Saturday. Hughes shot 8-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-9 from behind the arc while playing 36 tough minutes. In a physical game against the Wildcats, Stiemsma slowed KSU’s freshman phenom Michael Beasley while putting on a show of his own. The senior big man had a game-high three offensive rebounds to go along with his 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting.

Senior guard Michael Flowers quietly tallied 15 points and five rebounds, hitting three 3-pointers, while classmate Brian Butch finished with nine points and four rebounds in 23 minutes of action.

KSU started the game with a couple easy buckets and some pressure defense that gave them an early lead, but the Badgers found their rhythm after a couple big shots from Jason Bohannon and Stiemsma taking their first lead of the game at 13-10. Hughes and Flowers had ten and 11 points respectively at the break while the team shot 7-for-15 from the 3-point line. Stiemsma had one of his strongest halves, scoring seven points, a couple power dunks, and grabbing four rebounds as the Badgers entered the locker room leading 39-33.

Wisconsin came out of the locker room and jumped on the Wildcats, extending its lead to 13 six minutes into the half. The Badger defense then did its job, holding KSU to only 35 percent shooting in the second half and prevented them from hitting a single 3-point attempt the entire game (0-13).

UW was out-rebounded by the Wildcats (36-26), and was out-scored in the paint (40-26), but continually hit shots and stopped the little runs that Kansas State put together in the second half to win its 31st game and move onto the Sweet Sixteen for the fourth time in program history.

The Badgers will practice at home for a couple of days before heading to Detroit on Wednesday, March 26. Check back to UWBADGERS.COM for more on the Sweet Sixteen and Wisconsin’s next opponent.

IMPORTANT TICKET INFORMATION

The Wisconsin Athletic Ticket Office will be accepting requests for regional tickets beginning Saturday, March 22 at 7pm until Monday, March 24 at Noon online at uwbadgers.com. For your convenience, requests will also be accepted by phone on Monday, March 24 from 8:30am - Noon by calling 1.800.GO BADGERS. Requests will only be accepted from Coach's Club level donors (minimum $1000 contributed in 2007) and above.

Please note that unlike tickets for the first and second round, tickets for regional competition are good for both sessions of the regional (two regional semifinals and the regional final), regardless if Wisconsin wins its regional semifinal game. Patrons are not allowed to order regional semifinal tickets without ordering regional final tickets and vice versa. Regional round tickets are $150.

Donors will be notified by e-mail as to the status of their request sometime during the afternoon or evening of Monday, March 24. Information regarding ticket pick-up procedures, including dates, times and locations will be e-mailed to all donors qualifying for tickets.

http://www.uwbadgers.com/news_stories/story/default.aspx?storyid=13477&sportid=116

I don't think they were expected to do so well!

[Jimbo S]

1. They are playing to their 3-seed.

They were expected to get this far, but now come the more difficult games.