In front of an electric crowd at the Kohl Center, the Wisconsin men's basketball team put on an unforgettable performance, upsetting the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils 73-69 Wednesday night.
Senior guard Trevon Hughes led the Badgers (5-1) with 26 points, going 4-of-7 from 3 and making one clutch shot after another. With just over five minutes left in the game, Hughes drained a 3, igniting the Kohl Center and giving the Badgers their biggest lead of the night at 11.
Duke (6-1) forced its way back into the game behind the shooting of freshman Andre Dawkins. He leads the ACC with 2.7 3-point baskets a game and hit three consecutive shots behind the arc to cut Wisconsin's lead to two at 67-65 with 1:46 left in the game.
After a missed 3 from junior forward Jon Leuer and missed put-back from sophomore guard Jordan Taylor, the Blue Devils had an opportunity to take their first lead of the night.
""When Duke hit those [three] 3s and they were on their run and hitting some tough ones,"" head coach Bo Ryan said. ""We figured we had to shorten the game. We had to just make that clock just tick away. They're just too good offensively.""
On the pivotal possession, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski put the ball into the hands of junior forward Kyle Singler. He torched the Badgers' defense, finishing with a game and career-high 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line, but came up just short on his shot to put Duke ahead.
""Singler's a very good player,"" Ryan said. ""He really hurt us the last time we played him but there were a lot of games that were played since then. We looked at his tendencies, we say this is what we're going to try to do, and he still ends up having a great game offensively.""
After the miss the Badgers got the ball into the hands of their best free-throw shooter, senior guard Jason Bohannon. With 25 seconds left on the clock he made both free throws on the 1-and-1 giving Wisconsin a three-point lead. Duke decided to go for the quick two and senior guard Jon Scheyer, who finished with 10 points on 2-of-7 shooting, hit two free throws bringing Duke back within two.
The Blue Devils then fouled Leuer, who struggled from the charity stripe all game. He missed the first off the back of the rim, but sank the crucial second free throw to give the Badgers a three-point cushion with 15 seconds remaining.
A questionable tip-in by Singler narrowed the Badgers' lead to 1 with five seconds left, but then it was time for Hughes to play hero. He drained both free throws and after a turnover by Singler, Wisconsin put the game away with a final free throw from Taylor.
The win was the first for a Big Ten team against the Blue Devils in the Big Ten/ACC challenge and propelled the Big Ten to its first challenge victory. It was also the first win over a top-10 team for Wisconsin since its upset of No. 9 Texas in 2007, and gives Bo Ryan a 62-5 record in non-conference home game.
Krzyzewski couldn't say enough about the play of Hughes and Leuer.
""When you have two veterans who are really good players playing like that the other guys play better,"" he said. ""They were very, very good. We lost to a team that played, I thought, an outstanding game. Great crowd, great atmosphere. It was a night where Wisconsin fans should feel pretty darn good. They should feel very proud of their basketball team.""
