Oklahoma was left to surprise in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, as Badgers thrashed Oklahoma 78-58 in the semifinals. Badgers advance to the championship game to be held on Friday. Wisconsin continues its winning streak with this win.
The final score speaks less about this match, as, leading scorer of Badgers Ethan Happ was defended to zero points by the Sooners, through most of the first half. Happ didn’t even get started. Nearly one minute was left and Ethan Happ added four assists and scored seven boards.
Jamuni McNeace and Brady Manek, great players of Sooners, performed the task of keeping happ away from the post. As both of them were successful in stopping happ from scoring, Wisconsin had the required space for an all-round perimeter attack. Wisconsin took its first half lead around the 15-minute mark, as Kobe King hit successive treys around. Nate Reuvers, on the other hand, hit his 4th three pointer of the season.
During their first match in Florida against Badgers, Sooners tried nearly 18 3-point attacks. But, during this match in first half, they mostly took advantage of the misses that Badgers made and took on them. Although Happ scored seven boards in the first half, Sooners had the upper hand by leading over Wisconsin by 7 points (22-15).
Sooner’s key player Jamuni McNeace, was awarded 3 fouls and their below average perimeter defense attack got really weak. Although defense attack of Sooners was not up to the mark, Christian James played well scoring 18 points. Wisconsin’s D’Mitrik Trice took advantage of the situation and scored 7 of his 8 three-point attacks. He did most of the damage.
The Sooners impressive performance in the first half was nullified by the poor performance in the second half. The second half saw Wisconsin hammering a 10-0 blow, scoring nearly 59 percent, to register their match on Friday.
Source 1: www.247sports.com
Source 2: www.crimsonandcreammachine.com
