Wisconsin basketball rolled past Chicago State 74-53 on Saturday to pick up its eighth victory of the 2024-25 season. As many predicted, it was all Badgers from start to finish.
UW wing John Tonje again captained Wisconsin’s offensive attack with 22 points off 5-of-12 from the field, 3-of-6 from deep and 9-of-10 from the free throw line in 29 minutes of action. The North Omaha, Nebraska native also added five rebounds and three assists in the 21-point blowout win.
Veteran center Steven Crowl logged nine points, seven rebounds, five assists and three blocks in 28 minutes, and sophomore center Nolan Winter added 12 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes as well.
Fresh off their Greenbrier Tip-Off win on Nov. 24, the Badgers set the tone early. UW built a 12-2 lead within the first five minutes of action courtesy of eight points from Tonje and a pair of layups from big men Crowl and Winter.
Wisconsin maintained a relatively comfortable lead from that point forward. Fueled by 10 points from Winter, the Badgers piloted a 21-5 scoring spurt to stretch their lead to 53-32 by the 10:14-minute mark of the second half.
Greg Gard’s bench essentially put a bow on the second half scoring, and Wisconsin claimed its eighth straight win of the 2024-25 slate in dominant fashion.
https://twitter.com/BadgerMBB/status/1862948505808961878
It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but Wisconsin did exactly what it needed to do to snag the victory. As a unit, the Badgers shot an underwhelming 39% from the field and 33.3% from outside. The team shared the wealth with 17 assists, plus scored 19 points off Chicago State turnovers. The Badgers leaned on Winter and Crowl’s size against Cougars — UW out-rebounded Chicago State by eight in the effort.
With the win, Wisconsin starts the season 8-0 for the first time since 2013-14.
The Badgers will now look to keep its undefeated start to the season alive when it hosts the Michigan Wolverines on Dec. 3.