No. 18 Wisconsin brings a seven-game winning streak into Tuesday’s second leg of a Los Angeles road swing when the Badgers visit new Big Ten Conference counterpart UCLA.Wisconsin (15-3, 5-2 Big Ten) began its maiden conference voyage to Los Angeles on Saturday with an 84-69 win at Southern California. John Blackwell’s 28 points paced the Badgers and improved his season scoring average to 16.1 points per game.Blackwell’s effort also showed the high-scoring Wisconsin offense can continue to produce without its No. 1 scorer, John Tonje, putting up points. Tonje leads five Badgers with double-figure scoring averages with 17.2 points per game but went scoreless on Saturday with USC running a defensive scheme focused on slowing him down.”It just shows the leadership of our team,” Blackwell told reporters following the game. “We didn’t get too chaotic. We handled (a USC) run and weathered the storm and went on a run and finished the game off right.”Balance is becoming a signature of the surging Badgers.Max Klesmit helped pick up the slack on Saturday with 18 points as Wisconsin’s scoring average rose to 82.4 points per game. The Badgers ranked No. 28 nationally in scoring offense through Sunday’s games.UCLA (12-6, 3-4) looks to limit another outstanding offensive opponent while extending its own scoring performance following a 94-70 rout of Iowa on Friday. The Bruins snapped out of a four-game losing skid, holding a Hawkeyes offense that led the nation in scoring coming into Friday’s contest to 21-of-47 shooting from the floor.UCLA, meanwhile, shot a torrid 36 of 58 on field-goal attempts and Eric Dailey Jr.’s career-high 23 points powered the Bruins’ second-highest scoring game of the season.The emphatic win improved UCLA to 9-1 at home and marked the culmination of an emotional return from their East Coast road swing through Maryland and Rutgers.
