The Wisconsin Badgers started off their season with an 85-61 win on Monday, beating the Holy Cross Crusaders 85-61 to get out to a 1-0 start on the year.

It was a tale of two halves as the Badgers had an awful start, with Holy Cross getting out to a 21-5 lead before they clawed back to end the first half. Then, Wisconsin jumped out in the second half with multiple runs to pull off the 24-point victory in the opener.

Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin's 85-61 win over Holy Cross on Monday.

The Badgers started off in a rut, as they couldn't get things moving on either side of the ball.

Offensively, Wisconsin shot 2/12 to begin the game, with 10 of those attempts coming from three, and the Badgers made just one of those shots. Many of the three-pointers were open, but Wisconsin wasn't able to knock them down, and the team wasn't being aggressive going into the paint for looks either.

Defensively, the Badgers really looked off, as they were late on rotations, while allowing too many dribble penetration drives that resulted in points for Holy Cross. Guard Gabe Warren started hot, scoring 11 straight points as Holy Cross went on a 13-3 run to begin the game.

It was similar to Wisconsin's sluggish start against UW-River Falls, where the Badgers really didn't get going until late in the second half, as they took a number of three-point attempts and struggled with them to begin the game.

When the threes aren't falling, the Badgers need to take advantage of their opportunities and have more dribble penetration, especially when they have such a massive size advantage as they did on Monday.

That was how Wisconsin ultimately came back into the game over the second half of the first period, as drives from Max Klesmit, John Blackwell, and Kamari McGee cut the lead before the threes began to finally fall.

But, as the first two outings have shown, Wisconsin is still gelling into things with their new-look team, as they've needed the bench to come in to really settle down on both occasions.

For the second straight time, Wisconsin took over 50 percent of their shots from beyond the arc, as 31 of their 59 shot attempts came from deep.

John Tonje got into a groove near the end of the first half, hitting two threes, while John Blackwell and Nolan Winter each had a pair of triples in the win as well.

But, the slow start was due to the struggles from deep, as mentioned above, with Wisconsin starting 1/10 from deep in the game. A lot of those looks were from deep and they came from a number of different players, with Tonje, Max Klesmit, Blackwell, Steven Crowl, and Xavier Amos all taking early treys on Monday.

Head coach Greg Gard said this was going to be a three-point shooting team after the exhibition game last week, and that continued to be the case on Monday, even with a clear size advantage.

Wisconsin is going to need to be more efficient as they get deeper into their schedule, but they ended up shooting 35.5 percent from three on Monday, shooting 10/21 after their initial struggles over the first few minutes of the game.

After the early 16-point deficit, the Badgers found a way to come back in the first half, trailing by just one point at halftime.

Then, to start the second half, Wisconsin cruised and didn't look back, going on three different runs to outscore the Crusaders by 25 points in the period.

After a number of misses on both sides, the Badgers went on a 16-0 run over a four-minute run to go up 55-40. John Tonje started it off with five points before John Blackwell and Max Klesmit hit a pair of treys. Carter Gilmore had an and-1 to cap off the run, giving the Badgers a 15-point lead.

Holy Cross seemed to have some life with a pair of threes of their own, but the Badgers went on their next run, scoring nine consecutive points to increase the lead to 18. Tonje had another four off two fouls, Steven Crowl had a hook shot, and Kamari McGee hit a three, capping the run.

If you thought it was done, try again. After Holy Cross cut the lead to 67-52, the Badgers really sealed the deal with an 18-3 run over a four-minute run, with Nolan Winter scoring a majority of his 15 points with nine during the run, including a three-pointer off a fastbreak chance.

That gave Wisconsin an 85-55 lead before the team ultimately won 85-64 for their first win of the year in a comfortable way. They'll now look to continue their momentum on Thursday when they host Montana State, but it was a good start for Greg Gard on the Badgers here on Monday.