Behind a gritty performance from John Blackwell, memorable nights from Jack Janicki and Carter Gilmore and plenty of defensive toughness, the No. 12 Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team strutted into Minneapolis and defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers 74-67 Wednesday night.
When playing at Minnesota’s Williams Arena, which many college basketball fans refer to simply as “The Barn,” four of the last five meetings between Wisconsin and Minnesota have ended within five points. So to bounce back from their Sunday loss to Michigan State, the Badgers knew they would have to battle. In a game that featured no shortage of physicality and ended with one fewer tooth in Janicki’s mouth, a battle it was.
Wisconsin led early and clung to their advantage before a second-half Minnesota stampede stole their lead and threatened to send Wisconsin home losers of two straight. But the Badgers strapped in, received big plays down the line-up and battled back to demand a victory in enemy territory.
Blackwell embodied Wisconsin’s poise, ending the game with a double-double, scoring 25 points on 8-21 shooting and grabbing 11 rebounds. John Tonje, despite being limited by foul trouble, scored 18 points on 5-10 shooting, with seven rebounds. Steven Crowl added 10 points and three rebounds, while Gilmore scored eight points and Janicki gave six.
Meanwhile, Brennan Rigsby led the Gophers with 18 points, on 6-10 shooting, while Lu’Cye Williams added 15 points. Dawson Garcia added 14.
After Minnesota struck first, Wisconsin’s offense heated up early, rattling off a quick 12-0 run to provide an early cushion. But Minnesota then went on a 9-0 run themselves to even the score, sending a message to the Badgers that they were up for a street fight.
Wisconsin committed a plethora of turnovers early — nine overall in the first half — to help the Gophers hang in the game. But Wisconsin’s defense held Minnesota to shoot only 33.6% in the first half, and the Badgers led by six at half. Thirty-one of their 33 points came from the trio of Blackwell, Tonje and Crowl.
Wisconsin started the second half offensively strong, building an 11-point lead and maintaining it until 13 minutes left to play. But Minnesota’s offense, after looking lost, found a groove, rolling off an 11-0 run to tie the game at 46 with 11:04 to play.
Minutes later, Minnesota guard Williams drew an offensive foul on Tonje and hit a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to give the Gophers their first lead since the early moments of the first half.
With the home crowd officially reignited, Wisconsin gained serious contributions from bench players like Janicki and Gilmore. After Patterson’s triple, Janicki drove to the hoop and scored to tie the game. Gilmore then converted on two pairs of free throws before Janicki coldly hit a nasty turn-around jumper with 4:47 left, giving Wisconsin a 61-56 lead.
After a lay-in by Garcia once again brought the Gophers within three, Janicki responded with a lay-up of his own. On Wisconsin’s next possession, Gilmore hit a paint jumper to extend the Badgers lead to six.
From there, Wisconsin collectively took care of business in crunch-time even as the game remained competitive until the final seconds, evident by Janicki landing face-first on the ground on a hard fall, with 12 seconds left and Wisconsin already up by nine. Janicki lost a good portion of his front tooth, picked it up and proudly displayed it to the crowd as he jogged to the bench to finish his night.
With the victory, Wisconsin improves to 23-7 (13-6 Big Ten) and awaits a match-up with Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday, senior day at the Kohl Center.
