Nick Boyd had a career-high 36 points, seven rebounds and seven assists as Wisconsin beat Providence 104-83 Thursday in the Rady Children’s Invitational semifinals in San Diego.
Boyd, who spent last season at San Diego State, made 15 of 25 field goal attempts, including four 3-pointers.
Austin Rapp added 20 points and eight rebounds, Nolan Winter finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds and John Blackwell tossed in 11 points. Rapp made 5 of 11 3-point attempts.
Wisconsin (5-1) will play TCU in Friday’s championship game. TCU beat No. 10 Florida 84-80 in Thursday’s first semifinal. Providence (4-3) and Florida will meet in Friday’s consolation game.
Jason Edwards scored a team-high 20 points for Providence, which entered the matchup averaging 93.2 points per game. The loss ended Providence’s two-game winning streak.
Stefan Vaaks (11), Jamier Jones (10) and Oswin Erhunmwunse (10) also reached double figures for Providence. Jones and Jaylin Sellers each had a team-high seven rebounds for the Friars, who never led in the game.
The Badgers had a 14-7 edge in offensive rebounds and a 32-14 advantage in fastbreak points.
Wisconsin used a 12-2 run to take a 39-26 lead with 3:24 remaining in the first half. Boyd made four fastbreak layups in that stretch alone.
The Badgers missed 12 of their first 14 3-point attempts in the half, but made their final four shots from behind the 3-point arc. Rapp sank three 3-pointers in the final 80 seconds of the half to put Wisconsin up 51-32 after 20 minutes.
A Winter layup capped a 12-0 run that handed the Badgers a 65-37 lead with 15:13 to play.
Jack Janicki hit a pair of 3-pointers 64 seconds apart to help Wisconsin make it 73-47 with 12:27 remaining, and the Badgers led by at least 19 the rest of the game.
