Trailing by 13 with just over 12 minutes left in the game, Wisconsin appeared headed for a devastating home loss that would’ve dealt a serious blow to its NCAA Tournament aspirations.
The offense had been stagnant all night, Illinois seemingly couldn’t miss in the second half and the Badgers were in dire straits.
But thanks to some heroics from Ethan Happ and Co. down the stretch, a disaster was averted for UW.
Behind a 28-4 second-half rally, Wisconsin (9-5 Big Ten, 17-10 overall) defeated Illinois (4-10, 12-15) 69-60 Sunday night at the Kohl Center. Happ had one of the biggest performances of his young career, finishing the game with 20 points, 12 rebounds and six steals.
It was Happ’s eighth double-double of the year, leaving him just one shy of the UW freshman record for most double-doubles in a single season, set by Rashard Griffith, who happened to be in attendance Sunday night, during the 1993-94 season.
“He’s tough to cover one-on-one because he’s such a good ball handler down there [in the post] and he has good balance,” Illinois head coach John Groce said of Happ. “He can drive you baseline, he can come to the middle of the floor, he’s got good touch and I think he plays the game the right way from watching him.”
After going 0 for 5 from the field in the first half, junior forward Nigel Hayes went 4 of 5 in the second half. He also converted of 8 of 9 free-throw attempts to finish the night with 17 points.
Just as it was a tale of two halves for Nigel Hayes, so too was it for Wisconsin as a whole.
The Badgers couldn’t seem to buy a basket in the first half, especially from behind the arc. They shot 8 of 28 overall over the first 20 minutes, including an abysmal 1-of-13 mark from 3-point range. Though they only trailed 29-24 heading into the break and started hitting a few shots early in the second half, the Fighting Illini came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders on offense, allowing them to build a 13-point lead.
Illinois hit eight of its first nine shots to start the second half, including several contested jumpers. Junior guard Malcolm Hill led the Illini with 20 points, while junior guard Kendrick Nunn went 4 for 8 from 3-point range and finished with 15 points.
“I'm going to give Malcolm Hill a lot of credit. He's one of the best players in this league and we knew that before tonight,” UW interim head coach Greg Gard said. “But some of the shots he hit, even though we were exchanging the ball screen to try to prevent some of the throwback or three opportunities with different players and shut off dribble penetration, he hit some step backs and some leaners. We have a guy 6-9 in your face, and still to be able to hit those shots, that's a credit to him.”
But with their backs against the wall, the Badgers answered the call in a big way.
Wisconsin rattled off 17 unanswered points as part of a larger 28-4 run, sending the Kohl Center into a frenzy and turning a once daunting deficit into a lead that got as big as 11 at one point. After a jumper from Hill put Illinois up 46-33 with 12:22 remaining, the Badgers turned on the afterburners, coming away with points on 14 of their next 17 possessions. Meanwhile, the Illini endured a 7:03 scoreless stretch that all but doomed them.
UW got to the free-throw line early and often in the second half, reaching the bonus just 7:17 into the half. On the night, the Badgers went 26 of 33 from the charity stripe and held a 26-12 edge in fouls, thanks in part to their commitment to attacking in the post in the second half.
After scoring a paltry 0.71 points per possession in the first half, Wisconsin went off for 1.45 points per possession in the second. Thanks to this startling turnaround, they were able to pull of the biggest comeback since the Badgers rallied from 15 down to upend No. 1 Ohio State on February 12, 2011.
“We're developing that winning way that I spoke about at the beginning of the year when we were losing the close games,” Hayes said. “Teams that win find ways to win. Teams that aren't comfortable with that do things to make themselves lose. We're slowly creeping over into the area, so now when we get in situations like that we're able to look at one another and know that we can count on this guy, count on Ethan [Happ] and count on Bronson [Koenig]. We can all do our jobs individually, which will collectively allow us to come back, or if we're trading baskets, pull away and win.”
Back in the win column and having won eight of its last nine, Wisconsin will head back out on the road to take on Iowa Wednesday at 8 p.m. Though Sunday night’s win was far from pretty for most of the game, Gard is hopeful that it can serve as a learning experience for the tough tests that still lie ahead.
“That resolve and that fight and that grit – as I commended them in the locker room – shows that they're maturing. When things don't go well, you can still find ways to be on the left hand side,” Gard said. “I’m extremely proud of our guys. They did not flinch, they would not wilt at all and when things weren't going well, they kept digging in and finding a way.”
