In their final game of the regular season, the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team lost to the No. 3 Purdue Boilermakers 70-78 Sunday in West Lafayette.
Wisconsin came into this matchup after a much needed 78-66 win against Rutgers at home after the Badgers’ guards put on a show for senior night.
Before the game’s tipoff, Purdue surprised their 7-foot-4 forward Zach Edey with his jersey number hanging in the Mackey Arena rafters. Edey plans to enter the NBA draft this summer.
Wisconsin struggled early on to keep Boilermakers guard Fletcher Loyer and Edey in check as the two of them combined for 23 points in the first half.
Badgers forwards Steven Crowl and Nolan Winter attempted to guard Edey throughout the game and eventually fouled out of the game. Edey scored 25 points while having 14 free-throw attempts — Crowl and Winter did not score in the game.
Despite their difficulties guarding Edey, John Blackwell shined for Wisconsin and tied his season-high single-game points at 18 — the last time he scored that much was back on Nov. 17 against Robert Morris.
Badgers guard AJ Storr and forward Tyler Wahl also showed up to play and scored 17 points each. Wahl finished with a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds.
However, Purdue’s consistent lead did not budge as Wisconsin could only get within four points with 9:39 left in the game. However, any hope for a Badgers win was short-lived as Purdue increased their lead back to double digits several minutes later.
With the final game of the regular season over, the Badgers head to Minnesota for the Big Ten Tournament, where they play their first game on Thursday around 1:30 p.m. against either Maryland or Rutgers.
