No 3-pointers? No problem for 25th-ranked Wisconsin, which used a powerful inside game and a stifling defense to muscle past Stanford 62-46 in the first round of the 2018 Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis.

The Badgers did not sink a 3-pointer until the game’s final minute. By then, the outcome was well in hand, as Wisconsin wore down the Cardinal with an 18-4 run over the final 6:53. The Badgers held Stanford to 27.1 percent shooting from the field (16-of-59) and 2-for-18 from 3-point range.

“Everyone talks about confidence on an offensive end … but that can be flipped to the other end of the floor, too. The confidence to know that we can rely on our defense,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “We were able to do that pretty well tonight.”

Even though the Badgers (4-0) led the entire second half, the game was still in doubt when Stanford forward KZ Okpala drained a 3-pointer with less than seven minutes remaining to cut the gap to 44-42.

But the Cardinal (2-2) drew no closer, as Wisconsin scored 15 points in the next five minutes, all on either layups or free throws. The Badgers scored nearly two-thirds of their points from within the paint (40) and sank 15-of-19 free throws.

“Last year we might not have handled (the end of a close game) as well as this year,” said Wisconsin forward Ethan Happ, who finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds. “There’s a belief in our defense that we can be the better team at the end of the game.”

On those occasions when the Badgers had a breakdown on defense, sophomore forward Nate Reuvers often was there to clean it up, setting a tournament record by blocking nine shots.

“Coach was talking about that if a guy has a mistake on defense, that we need to cover for each other,” Reuvers said. “So when they were driving down the lane, I was just coming over and helping my guys out.”

Or as Gard said, “He comes to the rescue behind us.”

Okpala was the only Stanford player to score in double figures with 11 points.

“They did a nice job of packing it in (on defense) and being physical on our drives,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said of the Badgers. “I thought we took a step forward … but it doesn’t reflect that in the stat sheet when you don’t see the ball go through the basket.”