NCAA News Wire
Wisconsin 75, American 35
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
MILWAUKEE — Point guard Traevon Jackson scored 18 points as Wisconsin beat American, 75-35, Thursday in a second round NCAA Tournament game played at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
Riding a 19-3 run into intermission, the second-seeded Badgers (27-7), playing just under an hour from their Madison, Wis. home arena, shot 57.7 percent in the second half and made 7 of 14 from beyond the arc.
Wisconsin held American to 13 points in the second half.
Guard Ben Brust knocked down four of Wisconsin’s 10 3-pointers and finished with 17 points and forward Sam Dekker scored 11 with six rebounds. Frank Kaminsky had eight points and four rebounds.
Center Tony Wroblicky and guard John Schoof each finished with 11 points, but were a combined 7 of 17 from the field for the Eagles (20-13), who shot 28.9 percent (11 of 38) as a team and only 3 of 19 in the second half.
American stunned the decidedly partisan crowd with a 9-0 run to take a 14-10 lead with 11:02 left in the first half. The Badgers missed seven in a row during that stretch but rallied back to tie the game at 20-20 on Ben Brust’s 3-pointer with four minutes left and went ahead when Brust completed a three-point play to make it 23-20 with 3:32 remaining.
Wisconsin led by 10 at halftime.
NOTES: Wisconsin is appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the 16th consecutive season and 20th overall. The Badgers have won seven of their last eight opening-round games and are 11-2 in the opening round under head coach Bo Ryan. … American was in the tournament for the first time since 2009 and third time in program history. … The Badgers played two previous NCAA Tournament games in Milwaukee, defeating 11th-seeded Richmond before falling to No. 6 Pittsburgh in 2004.
