This time in front of a packed house at the Kohl Center, Wisconsin basketball continued their winning ways. The Badgers (7-1) returned home after a four-game winning streak away from Madison and used a second-half scoring outburst to pull away from Marquette (7-2) in an 89-76 win.
The two teams traded leads throughout the first half, as Marquette’s bench kept them in it. Wisconsin finished the half with a flurry, turning a four-point Golden Eagles lead into a three-point Badgers lead with a 7-0 spurt.
After taking a 34-31 lead into the halftime break, the second half belonged to Wisconsin’s star wing Johnny Davis and senior guard Brad Davison. Davis went 4-5 from the field for 11 second-half points as Davison poured in 14.
As a team, Wisconsin shot a blistering 19-27 (70.4%) from the field over the final 20 minutes of action, and put 55 points on the board. After falling behind 36-34 in the opening moments of the half, the Badgers went on an extended 27-11 run to blow the game open.
The Badgers picked up their fifth-straight win and their first home win of the streak. Davis finished with a game-high 25 points on 9-14 from the field, while Davison contributed 20 to the Badger cause. Wisconsin shot 10-24 (41.7%) from three-point land, while the Golden Eagles went just 9-26 (34.6%) from distance.
The Badgers stay home to begin Big Ten play, as they face Indiana on December 8.