Wisconsin Herd come alive in second half, edge past Capital City Go-Go

Sparked on by a strong performance throughout the second half, the Wisconsin Herd edged past the Capital City Go-Go to garner their first home victory for this G League season.

The Wisconsin Herd have tallied two straight victories after their 123-113 comeback win over the Capital City Go-Go Wednesday night at Menominee Nation Arena.

For the third straight game, the Herd got a big boost with the Milwaukee Bucks assigning fourth-year big man Dragan Bender to Oshkosh. But that wasn’t all as Wednesday night marked the Herd debut for Bucks newcomer Thanasis Antetokounmpo and it certainly wasn’t surprising to see his superstar brother, Giannis, make the trip to Oshkosh last night, along with his family.

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Despite the reinforcements, it was the Go-Go who raced out of the gates to take early control of the night. Forced to play catch up, the Herd’s sloppiness with the ball became a theme throughout their tough first quarter and they trailed Capital City 31-19 at the end of one.

The start of the second quarter saw the Herd provide a brief glimpse of what was to come as they rattled off a 14-3 run through the period’s first four and a half minutes.

Following a timeout to regroup, the Go-Go quickly shrugged off the Herd’s first half comeback push and eventually brought their lead back up to double digits to take a 63-49 edge going into halftime.

Wisconsin turned things up a notch to start the second half and thanks to a string of triples from the likes of Frank Mason III and Cam Reynolds, the Herd rode a hot shooting spark to close in on the Go-Go throughout the third quarter. It was a three-pointer from Bender at the 4:08 mark in the period that helped give the Herd their first lead since the opening minute of the contest and by dropping 42 points throughout the quarter, the Herd held a 91-88 advantage through three.

Capital City didn’t back down by any means to start the fourth frame as the lead traded back and forth between the two parties during the opening few minutes of the period. But it was through the leadership of Mason and a whole host of contributions that saw the Herd separate from the Go-Go to take their first home victory of the season by the time the final buzzer sounded.

Moving on to individual performances, it’s hard not to shine a light on the gutsy outing that Mason had on the night, especially as he braved out a thigh contusion he suffered during the second quarter. The Bucks two-way player was electric scoring the ball at the basket and especially from downtown, and he led all scorers on the night with 29 points on 15 shots (5-of-9 from three, 6-for-8 from the foul line), along with eight assists, seven turnovers and three boards.

Behind Mason in terms of how instrumental he was in the Herd’s victory was Bender, who made great strides in spacing the floor to knock down shots from outside as well as providing a much-needed presence on the glass. All of the above resulted in Bender logging a double-double with 22 points on 11 shots (3-for-5 from deep, 1-for-1 from three), 12 rebounds, three turnovers and two assists in exactly 30 minutes of action.

The elder Antetokounmpo stepped right up in the starting lineup in place of Jemerrio Jones and got off to a hot start scoring eight points in the first quarter alone. Antetokounmpo’s scoring pace trailed off significantly, which wasn’t helped him by going 0-for-4 from long distance. Despite his shooting inefficiencies, Antetokounmpo provided plenty of energy to stuff the stat sheet on his way to 12 points on 12 shots, five rebounds, two blocks, one assist and one steal.

All together, all five of the Herd’s starters on the night scored in double figures and D.J. Hogg stepped off the bench to supply 11 points, thanks to him going 3-for-5 from beyond the arc. And 11 of the Herd’s 17 total triples for the night came during their offensive awakening throughout the second half, where they posted their best clip for a single game so far this season at 40.5 percent on 42 three-point attempts.

Turnovers, though, continue to be a significant problem for the Herd and they turned over the ball more (23) than they did in compiling assists (21). Weirdly, that’s the third straight game where the Herd have posted exactly 23 miscues.

The Herd will look for a potential third straight victory when they host the Raptors 905 Friday night at Menominee Nation Arena for a 7pm CT tip-off.