University of Central Arkansas Athletics

    MADISON, Wisc. _ The ninth-ranked Wisconsin Badgers held the University of Central Arkansas to 28.3 percent shooting Friday night and won the season opener for both teams 79-47 in front of a crowd of 17,287 at the Kohl Center.

    The Bears hung around for much of the first half, despite shooting just 29.6 percent (8 of 27) from the field. But the Badgers picked up the pace offensively and defensivley in the second half and the Bears made just 7 of 25 shots from the field and lost the rebound battle as well to the bigger team from the Big Ten. Wisconsin, which has won 87 percent of its games at the Kohl Center, outscored UCA 45-25 in the final 20 minutes.

    "There is just nothing easy when you play them,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell. "I think the disappointing thing is, I thought especially early in the game we had some great looks, and the ball just didn't go in. And that's kind of uncharacteristic for us. But you got to credit Wisconsin. 

    "You can sit here, and you're playing the No. 9-ranked team in the country, and if you don't watch it you'll sit here and say, 'man, we just didn't play very well.' But they're going to do that to a lot of people.'

    The Bears, who fell behind 13-3 in the first five minutes, cut their deficit to just two points twice, at 17-15 on a layup by junior Mathieu Kamba, and at 19-17 on freshman Darraja Parnell's layup at the 7:13 mark. But the Badgers, who returned 99 percent of their scoring from last year's 22-13 Sweet Sixteen team, outscored the Bears 15-5 the rest of the half for a 34-22 lead at the break.

    "I think the disappointing thing for me was that little run right before the half,' said Pennell. "We had the game within reach and I thought we had them back on their heels. And then we had just a little bit of breakdown. I'm looking forward to watching the film and see if that was a personnel thing, did I make a mistake and had the wrong people in, or maybe fatigue.

    "But you learn things as a coach as well as our teams. But I thought we fought back a little bit in the second half. But in the end, No. 9 prevailed.'

    Senior guard Derreck Brooks, the Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year last season, led the Bears with 12 points and eight rebounds. Junior guard Jordan Howard was next with 10 points, hitting a pair of three-pointers but shooting just 2 of 11 from the field overall. It was the 41st consecutive game for Howard to connect from beyond the arc, and his 56th game of his career with double figures.



    UCA finished with just 12 turnovers and forced Wisconsin into 11. However, the Badgers finished with a 44-29 rebounding advantage.
    
    "I think the two areas that got us, I look here at second-chance points, they had 17 of them,' Pennell said. "We didn't rebound the ball very well in the second half. In the first half we did, in fact I think we were ahead of them on the glass at halftime. And shooting percentage. They got away from us a little in the second half on a couple of threes. 

    "We know in this matchup zone that people are going to take a lot of threes. They took 53 shots and 29 of them were three-pointers. And that's OK. They hit 38 percent, which is a little higher than I'd like to see, but I thought for the most part, there scores were more of our miscues. We had a number of breakdowns, and again, that's because we really haven't played this under fire. But I liked what I saw. I think it has the makings of being really good.' 

    Wisconsin was led by the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year forward Nigel Hayes with 14 points and 5 assists. Guard Bronson Koenig had 16 points and made four three-pointers, while Zak Showalter added 10 points.

    UCA travels to Stillwater, Okla., on Monday to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Gallagher-Iba Arena.