By Kenneth Cross
FORT MYERS, Fla. – Big Ten football often gets the nod in conference regular-season games because of physicality.
However, the physical nature of the Wisconsin Badgers drove them by No. 24 Virginia, 65-41, on Monday evening at the Suncoast Credit Union Arena in the opening round of the Ft. Myers Tip-off.
Wisconsin forward Steven Crowl was 7-of-10 from the floor and led the Badgers with 15 points as they outrebounded Virginia, 48-21.
“Steven Crowl was terrific on the glass and finished strong inside,” said Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard. “Chucky (Hepburn) had six assists, no turnovers. The job Max Klesmit did defensively, on McKneely for the most part. Everybody who was in there contributed in a positive way.”
Wisconsin broke the game open in the second half with an 11-0 run over a three-minute stretch as Crowl led with four points around a three from Hepburn.
“I thought the games we had coming into tonight, specifically Providence and Tennessee, allowed us to prepare better tonight,” noted Gard. “I thought tonight things came together in terms of what our vision has been.”
Virginia’s Reed Beekman led all scorers with 17 points and seven assists.
SMU 70, West Virginia 58
SMU shot 60 percent from the floor in the second half in pinning West Virginia as trailed the Mountaineers, 36-25, at halftime.
“It’s really all about defense and it’s a hard lesson for a team to learn – the value of that,” explained Mustangs coach Rob Lanier. “Tonight really helped drive some of that home. We really won in the second half with our defense.”
SMU outscored the Mountaineers, 17-5, over the first 5:40 of the second half as the Mustangs regained the lead at 42-41 when Ricardo Wright hit his second of four second half three-pointers.
SMU held West Virginia to 7-of-27 from the floor in the second half as a 10-0 run at the midway point gave the Mustangs a 54-47 lead when BJ Edwards scored on a layup with 7:12 remaining to cap the run.
“There was a level of energy that we played with in the second half that we didn’t necessarily have in the first half,” said Coach Rob Lanier.
Zuhric Phelps led four Mustangs in double figures with 17 points while West Virginia’s Jesse Edwards led all scorers with 18.
It’s been a tough early season for the Mountaineers as interim-head coach Josh Eilert is without four players, who could have been keys in a deep lineup.
Center Akok Akok collapsed on the court in a late October exhibition matchup with George Mason.
Meanwhile, the NCAA flexed what’s left of it’s dangling muscle when it gave Arizona transfer Kerr Krissa a nine-game suspension and also extended that to eligibility issues with East Carolina transfer Noah Farrakan and former Montana State Bobcat Raequan Battle.