The Wisconsin men’s basketball team (11-5 Big Ten, 24-5 overall) started off college basketball’s most notorious month with a victory at Penn State Sunday afternoon.
The Badgers pushed their win streak to seven and moved into second place in the Big Ten after a thorough team win at University Park, Penn.
Penn State was coming off a great win against Ohio State, and carried that momentum with them in the early minutes against Wisconsin.
It was D.J. Newbill who got it going for the Nittany Lions, as the redshirt junior guard dropped 11 points in the first half.
Wisconsin showed great discipline and were able to control a lead for the majority of the hard-fought, physical half.
The Badger offense was very balanced, as no player scored in double digits in the first half. Junior center Frank Kaminsky led the team in scoring with seven points at the intermission.
Wisconsin shot 42 percent from the floor and held a 31-27 lead.
The second half brought more of the same. Wisconsin controlled the tempo of the game, while Penn State fought hard to keep it close.
Senior guard Ben Brust, who had not been shooting well in recent games, started to heat up from beyond the arc. He would finish the game with 14 points and went 4-for-7 from 3-point range.
Wisconsin would stretch their lead to as much as 10 points, but Penn State did not back down in front of their home crowd.
With just over 11 minutes to play, the Nittany Lions were back within three, but the Badgers quickly stretched their lead before they could get any closer.
Redshirt junior Josh Gasser continued his solid play, scoring a team-high 15 points as he shot 50 percent from the floor. Nine of his points came from behind the 3-point line.
Gasser currently leads the Big Ten conference in three-point percentage.
Penn State fought back to within two points with 17 seconds to play, but junior guard Traevon Jackson was able to make his bonus free throws to seal a Badger win.
The victory marks Wisconsin’s fourth straight win against Penn State.
UW has two remaining conference games against Purdue and Nebraska before the Big Ten tournament.
