The No. 7 Wisconsin Badgers didn’t do much right Thursday night.
Sure they led for almost 37 minutes, but Wisconsin looked like they were running on frozen Lake Mendota, continuously slipping, unable to run away from an inferior foe. Wisconsin missed 40 field goal attempts, 14 three-pointers and eight free throws as every time the Badgers (10-1 Big Ten, 21-3 overall) tried to pull away from the Nebraska Cornhuskers (4-8, 10-14), they slipped and fell.
And while senior forward Nigel Hayes called redshirt sophomore forward Ethan Happ “Mr. Reliable” after UW’s victory over Indiana last Sunday, Thursday night, Hayes was deserving of such a title in Wisconsin’s 70-69 overtime victory.
While the senior forward finished the game with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting, Hayes’ offensive production came almost exclusively in the second half, when the Badgers needed him most.
Hayes picked up his second foul just over three minutes into the game. He sat for almost the remainder of the half, not returning until the 6:49 mark for a brief three-minute stretch.
Like so many other conference games though, Wisconsin jumped out to an early lead. UW led 14-6 with 14:37 left in the half after senior guard Bronson Koenig knocked down an open two-point jumper. Minutes later, the Badgers found themselves up 10, leading 21-11 with 7:34 to play in the half.
But if jumping out to an early lead has emerged as a staple of Wisconsin’s conference season, so too has relinquishing it.
Nebraska went on a 9-2 run to cut UW’s lead to only three with 4:23 to play in the half. Wisconsin would make only two field goals after the 7:34 mark and as a result, led by a mere one point heading into the locker room.
Hayes knocked down a hook shot on UW’s first possession of the second half, but it didn’t take long for Wisconsin to again struggle on the offensive end of the floor. The Badgers would miss four of their next five field goal attempts, yet still led by three with just over 17 minutes to play in the game.
Wisconsin would push their lead to seven with 12:45 to play after Hayes split a pair of free throws, but the Cornhuskers would continue to hang around.
Nebraska continued to chip away at UW’s lead, eventually taking the lead for the first time with 5:06 to play in the second half.
But the Cornhuskers would lead for less than two minutes as a layup by Koenig gave UW a 53-52 lead with 3:19 to play. After a free throw by Nebraska’s Glynn Watson Jr., redshirt senior Zak Showalter gave UW a three-point advantage with 2:28 to play.
But with 0.1 seconds remaining in regulation, Nebraska’s Michael Jacobson knocked down a three-pointer, his first since December, and the game headed into overtime.
In overtime, the Cornhuskers looked poised to knock off the Badgers. Nebraska led by three before Koenig banked in a three with 1:27 to play. Nebraska would answer though with two made free throws to regain the lead.
After a night of missed baskets, turnovers and plenty of struggles on both ends, Hayes knocked down a three-pointer with 19 seconds to play in overtime, giving UW the 70-69 lead that they wouldn’t squander.
Happ, the two-time Big Ten player of the week, scored only eight points for the Badgers. It was Showalter as a result, who picked up his slack, finishing the game with 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting.
Koenig, who looked hobbled for most the night, finished with 12 of his own.
The Badgers now turn to a home matchup with Northwestern Sunday.
