LDN - Sports

No. 16 Wisconsin pulls away from Georgetown in Maui

[November 23, 2016] Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said his team's performance Tuesday night wasn't pretty, but it was impressive.

Sophomore forward Ethan Happ scored 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, and No. 16 Wisconsin pulled away from Georgetown in the second half for a 73-57 victory Tuesday in a semifinal of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational at Lahaina Civic Center in Maui, Hawaii.

With Happ leading the way, Wisconsin outrebounded Georgetown 50-21.

Vitto Brown hit two 3-pointers in the final six minutes, fueling the Badgers' decisive run late in the second half.

The Badgers meet No. 4 North Carolina in Wednesday's championship game. Georgetown plays Oklahoma State in the consolation game.

"It isn't real fancy or real cute, at times it's ugly," Gard said. "But that 50 (rebounds) number, that's kind of who we are."

Senior guard Bronson Koenig added 20 points, and sophomore guard Khalil Iverson made an impact off the bench with 10 points and seven rebounds for the Badgers.

Junior guard L.J. Peak led the Hoyas with 18 points, and senior forward Rodney Pryor finished with 14 points.

Wisconsin opened the second half with a 16-7 run, capped by a two-handed follow dunk by Iverson that extended the Badgers' lead to 48-36 with 12 minutes to play. The lead grew to 17 on a Brown 3-pointer with four minutes left. Brown finished with nine points.

"The nice thing specifically about Vitto (Brown) and Khalil (Iverson) tonight was that they stayed with what they're good at," Gard said. "They didn't try to get out of their box so to speak. They didn't over-dribble, they passed to the open guy, rebounded pretty hard, played decent defense -- we have to get better in some specific ball-screen situations -- but I thought they stayed true to who they are and what their strengths are."

The Badgers got off to a quick start and led the entire first half, but never by much. Nigel Hayes connected on a 3-pointer that put Wisconsin in front 21-14 nine minutes into the game, but Georgetown battled back.

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Pryor's dunk cut the deficit to 25-23 with 3:49 left in the first half. Pryor scored 11 points in the first half, and 7-0 senior center Bradley Hayes came off the bench to add four points and six rebounds for the Hoyas.

Koenig had 14 points for Wisconsin, and Happ grabbed 11 rebounds, helping the Badgers take a 32-29 lead into halftime. Georgetown grabbed 12 rebounds in the first half.

"We have to get some guys that understand that it's not just about points and minutes and care about all aspects of the game," Georgetown coach John Thompson III told reporters. "The second shots that they kept getting were key. And we had a few defensive mix-ups where we were supposed to be switching and we didn't, and the shooters were left open. But when they did miss, they got the ball ever time."

The Hoyas beat Wisconsin last November in tournament play, but couldn't keep up in the second half Tuesday.

"They're probably light years different (than last year's team)," Thompson said of the Badgers.

NOTES: This is the third straight season Wisconsin and Georgetown met in a November tournament. The Hoyas won last season's meeting in a 2K Classic semifinal game. The Badgers beat Georgetown in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the 2014-15 season. ... Wisconsin returns all five starters and 10 of its top contributors in terms of minutes played off last season's team, which reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. ... The 2018 Maui Jim Maui Invitational field was announced in late October. For the first time in the tournament's 35-year history, eight Division I programs will be in the field. Arizona, Auburn, Duke, Gonzaga, Illinois, Iowa State, San Diego State and Xavier have signed on to participate.

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