Dec. 3, 1999

Box Score

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Ugly basketball is in the eye of the beholder.

Rhode Island coach Jerry DeGregorio said his team's 66-43 loss Friday to Wisconsin was so ugly he could hardly stand to watch.

"It was an ugly game, one of the ugliest I've ever seen," DeGregorio said. "They played ugly, we played ugly. It was just an ugly game."

But Badgers coach Dick Bennett saw the game differently, especially coming off a humiliating 67-48 loss at Wake Forest Tuesday.

"If his definition holds up, we've been involved in more ugly games than any team perhaps in the history of basketball," Bennett said. "I don't know that we've ever played a pretty game, according to most people.

"I thought the first half, though, we did play pretty smooth. The second half was kind of ragged, I agree."

Wisconsin (4-2), which managed just 14 points in the first half at Wake Forest, took a commanding 37-23 halftime lead over the Rams.

Mark Vershaw scored 13 of his game-high 18 points in the first half, as the Badgers shot 50 percent from the field.

That was just the kind of start Bennett was hoping for after the Wake Forest debacle.

"I thought we responded with energy and effort," Bennett said. "And that was probably our major objective, to come out and play hard. There's probably a lot we didn't do well, particularly in the second half, but the effort was clearly there from start to finish. That was pleasing."

Among the most pleasing aspects to Bennett was the Badgers' 52-32 rebounding advantage. That's way up from the Badgers performance against Wake Forest, where they were outboarded 40-24.

"We got criticized for the way we got pushed around and got outrebounded by Wake Forest," Vershaw said. "We wanted to make sure that didn't happen again."

Andy Kowske grabbed 11 rebounds and Maurice Linton had 10 to go along with his 12 points. The Badgers' 52 rebounds were the most in a game since 1995 when they also had 52 against Northwestern.

Zach Marbury, younger brother of New Jersey Nets star Stephon Marbury, led Rhode Island (3-3) with 15 points. The team shot 25.5 percent from the field.

"You're not always going to shoot well," DeGregorio said. "We shot 25 percent and that's atrocious. But the way they killed us on the boards is not something I'm going to accept. There's no excuse for that."

Wisconsin took command with an early 17-3 run to open up a 23-10 lead. The Badgers capped off the run with three straight 3-point baskets - one by Roy Boone and two by Jon Bryant.

"We got down early and were never really in the game," DeGregorio said. "We lost to the better team. They kicked our butts in every phase of the game."