MILWAUKEE -- As the final seconds ticked off the clock at the Bradley Center, Badgers guard Traevon Jackson playfully tried to steal the ball away from smiling teammate Nigel Hayes, who was dribbling out a 49-38 Wisconsin win over Marquette in the team's annual in-state rivalry game.
It was just about the only defense the Badgers looked comfortable playing against Saturday.
Given a towering height advantage in the frontcourt, No. 2 Wisconsin (8-1) struggled with an undersized Marquette (4-4) team committed to playing a 2-3 zone defense that stymied the Badgers often and forced them to take a season-high 30 3-pointers, only eight of which were made.
Wisconsin shot just 32.7 percent from the field, by far its lowest mark of the season, including 26.7 percent on 3s. The Badgers also committed 11 turnovers, struggling to penetrate the interior of the Golden Eagles' aggressive zone, while also being unable to capitalize on the open outside shots the defense allowed.
In the end, though, senior forward and preseason All-American Frank Kaminsky and the Badgers hit enough baskets on offense and made life miserable for Marquette at the other end of the court -- the Golden Eagles missed 71 percent of their shots -- to pull out the win at the Milwaukee arena where the Badgers began their run to the Final Four last season.
It was a win, yes, but it was ugly.
"That's a pretty perfect word for it," said Badgers senior guard Josh Gasser, jersey untucked and looking weary but relieved, after the game. "You expect a Marquette-Wisconsin game to be a battle -- a tough, physical game -- and it was.
"They packed that zone in pretty tight, tried to keep the ball out of Frank's hands -- and that's a pretty smart decision, I think -- and we were forced to take a lot of outside shots. They weren't going in the majority of the game, but we happened to make enough to win."
Kaminsky and Gasser, the only two players to score in double figures in Wisconsin's lowest-scoring game thus far, were the lone offensive bright spots for the Badgers. Kaminsky, who played 38 of the game's 40 minutes, scored 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, adding 10 rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Gasser connected on four 3-pointers, twice converting late in the shot clock after long Marquette defensive stands.
"We really needed those," said Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan of Gasser's 3-pointers. "His two stare-downs excited the other guys, got the other guys moving a little bit. Josh never gets cheated."
One of Gasser's 3s came less than four minutes into the second half and after the Golden Eagles had closed to within 25-22. It was the fourth shot of a Badgers possession, after three offensive rebounds seemed to deflate a home crowd that, despite the in-state dynamic, was decidedly pro-Marquette.
"It was big," Gasser said. "Every time the crowd got into it, every time (Marquette) got within two, three points, we always made a shot. We're a veteran club; we've got some tough guys, so we expect nothing less. It would've been nice to make (shots) all throughout the game instead of just when we needed them, but we made enough to get it done."
Kaminsky said the Badgers, who came into the game shooting 35.2 percent from 3-point range, were getting good looks and he believed their inaccuracy was atypical.
"People were shooting them with confidence; it's not like we were just throwing the ball at the rim because we needed to get shots up," Kaminsky said. "We were finding open people, just shots weren't falling today and that's going to happen in basketball."
Wisconsin, which faces zone defenses in the Big Ten and easily handled Baylor's vaunted zone in the NCAA tournament last year, hadn't seen the scheme yet this season. And even though the Badgers knew what they were going to get Saturday -- Marquette, which doesn't have a player taller than 6-foot-7 on its roster, regularly plays zone -- they didn't seem comfortable on offense.
Still, Kaminsky didn't sound overly concerned after the game.
"First time this season that we've played against a zone," Kaminsky said. "We were able to prepare for it for a couple days in practice, but obviously it's nothing like the actual other team. . . . We see some zones in the Big Ten -- it's whatever, you know?
"Obviously, Marquette's been practicing playing with a zone throughout their first seven or eight games and some other teams play zone all the time. We'll be ready for whatever other teams throw at us because we prepare for games and our coaching staff does a great job of telling us what they're going to do defensively and what they're going to run offensively, so we'll be prepared no matter what."
Ryan acknowledged there were "some things we could've done better" against Marquette's zone, but said a better Badgers' shooting performance would have mitigated the defense's effectiveness. Had the Badgers made two more 3-point shots, which would've given them 10 baskets on 30 attempts from behind the arc, Ryan said the team would have achieved its one-point-per-shot target.
"We were off a little, but because we took so many it looks like we were really bad from 3," Ryan said, adding he didn't think the team took too many long-range attempts. "That's the way it played out. Maybe there was a couple times when we could've touched the post, but throwing it in there, (the Golden Eagles) were very aggressive with their hands and sometimes it didn't come out and there were turnovers. So I think a couple guys got a little leery about getting the ball in the paint."
Gasser pointed out that a zone defense, especially one operated by a smaller team like Marquette, is particularly susceptible to giving up offensive rebounds. The Badgers, which outrebounded the Golden Eagles 41-28 overall, grabbed 14 offensive boards, extending possessions and giving them second- and third-chance opportunities to score.
"We knew we had a size advantage," Gasser said. "Anytime you play a zone you're vulnerable to giving up offensive rebounds (because) you're not blocking out one specific guy, so that was a point of emphasis. And when you're missing as many as shots as we were, you're hoping you'll get a couple offensive rebounds, so that was nice."
With the win, Wisconsin extended its series lead over Marquette to 66-55 in the in-state rivalry. Afterward, Ryan compared Saturday's contest to the "playground days" -- a team having to battle together and grind out a win any way possible to earn the right to remain on the court for the next game.
"I love playing in those kind of games," Ryan said.
Gasser, a fifth-year senior and native of Port Washington, Wis., who has now won twice and lost twice in his college career against Marquette, agreed with his coach's sentiment.
"It's Marquette-Wisconsin; I don't care if we win 1-0," Gasser said. "Against Marquette, it's a rivalry game, that's all that matters. Anything to get the job done we were going to do."
Dekker quiet: Despite a sprained left ankle that's been bothering him since before the season started, Sam Dekker started Saturday against Marquette.
The junior forward, projected by some as a first-round NBA Draft pick next year, played 22 minutes, the least among the Badgers' starters. He scored just two points on 1-of-5 shooting and missed both of his 3-point attempts, including one air ball.
After the game, Ryan lauded Dekker's effort and all-around game â he had five rebounds and three assists.
"I'd say he played some D, he got on the glass, he was active," Ryan said. "You've got to love those games where we could play basically those seven (primary rotation players) because of the pace.
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