MADISON, Wis. _ The college basketball game held Wednesday night at the Kohl Center quickly morphed into a glorified scrimmage for No. 17 Wisconsin.
Idaho State entered the night with one victory on its eight-game resume, went scoreless for the first 6 minutes, 3 seconds of the game and offered little resistance throughout as UW recorded a 78-44 victory.
UW (8-2) improved to 14-2 at home under Greg Gard, with the losses coming last season to Purdue and Maryland.
The Badgers next face Marquette (7-2) on Saturday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
Marquette, which has won five consecutive games this season, has won three of the last five meetings with UW.
Needless to say, the level of intensity will be greater than it was Wednesday night as the crowd appeared in a comatose state during the first half as UW built a 21-3 lead with 9:04 left until the break.
Consider some of the numbers from the opening 20 minutes as UW built a 35-16 lead:
Idaho State missed its first seven field-goal attempts and finished the half with 12 turnovers, 15 missed shots and 16 points and 10 rebounds.
UW's Nigel Hayes and Ethan Happ combined for 21 points and 11 rebounds in the half as UW shot 48.3 percent (14 of 29).
Happ recorded a double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds) for the third time in four games and fourth in the last six.
Hayes finished with 11 points and four rebounds. He played just 22 minutes and no UW starter played more than 25 minutes.
Bronson Koenig scored 16 of his game-high 21 points in the second half for UW. He hit 4 of 7 3-pointers and 7 of 10 shots overall, in just 17 minutes.
Guard Ethan Telfair, the brother of Oklahoma City guard Sebastian Telfair, entered the night leading Idaho State in scoring at 19.8 points per game.
Guarded mostly by Zak Showalter, Telfair missed his first six shots. He finished 1 of 9 for two points.
Showalter played efficiently and finished with four points, five rebounds, four steals, three assists and a block in 25 minutes.
The mismatch was evident early as UW worked for good shots against Idaho State's zone and the Bengals struggled to get the ball inside against UW's half-court defense.
UW hit 6 of 13 shots (46 percent) in the first 8:03 of the game to build a 16-3 lead.
Idaho State made 1 of 4 3-pointers, 1 of 8 shots overall and had five turnovers on 12 possessions.
The Bengals' first points came with 13:56 left in the half on a 3-pointer by guard Erik Nakken.
The victory was the fourth in a row for UW since losing to North Carolina in the title game of the Maui Invitational.
It also came two days after Hayes was named the Big Ten player of the week. He averaged 18.5 points, 8.0 assists and 6.5 rebounds in victories over Syracuse and Oklahoma.
"The leader _ best player on the team _ has played better," Hayes said before the game when asked about UW's turnaround. "All these cliches you can throw out about a leader, but I think I've picked up my level of play and as everyone usually says the team will follow suit. ...
"A lot of guys are shooting shots, feeling comfortable with themselves."
