The fifth-seeded Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team came into the Big Ten Tournament adamant that they had flushed their embarrassing regular-season finale loss to Penn State.
In beating the Northwestern Wildcats 70-63 in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament, Wisconsin came closer to proving they are playing like the team that won 24 regular season games and reached as high as No. 11 in the AP Poll, not the team that embarrassingly folded to bottom-feeding Penn State.
Wisconsin played tough defensively all game, especially in the second half, and its offense came to life after playing sleepily for most of the first half. With their win, Wisconsin will play fourth-seeded UCLA in the quarter-final round at 1:30 p.m. Friday.
“I thought we were really good defensively, too, that we did a pretty good job on [Northwestern’s Nick] Martinelli, really good job on [Ty] Berry, and then we were able to offensively get going at the end of the first half,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said after the game.
John Tonje and Nolan Winter led Wisconsin, each scoring 18 points to harass the Wildcats defense. Tonje shot 7-14, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out an assist. Winter shot 4-5 and scored nine points from the free-throw line, with six rebounds and two assists, in his first game in over two weeks.
Max Klesmit provided a needed boost for Wisconsin, scoring nine points on 3-5 shooting, with two rebounds. John Blackwell and Kamari McGee each scored eight points, while Steven Crowl added seven.
Wisconsin only scored 70 points but scored 17 second-chance points and 17 points off turnovers, exploiting some Northwestern mistakes.
Although the Badgers came out with a comfortable victory, most of the first half felt uneasy.
With Northwestern quickly converting on their first two 3s, Wisconsin found themselves in a bit of a hole early, trailing 8-3 just over two minutes into the game. But after free throws from Winter and a hard-headed drive from Klesmit that reassured Badgers fans of Klesmit’s shaky lower right left leg, the Badgers got back within one point.
Over the next five minutes, the Badgers failed to make a field goal, missing three 3s and committing back-to-back turnovers.
At 10:55, Blackwell broke Wisconsin’s field goal streak with a 3-pointer, tying the game at 14 and bringing the Badgers a bit of life. Blackwell then fought through physicality on a drive, converting on the bucket and finishing with a free throw to complete the three-point play. After a McGee corner 3, Winter got involved in the scoring on a tip-in and put-back on consecutive possessions.
By the under eight-minute media timeout, Wisconsin, whose offense looked lost at first, had rattled off a 13-5 run over three-and-a-half minutes, taking a 24-19 lead.
The power of Wisconsin’s sudden scoring burst didn’t last into the ensuing minutes, but it provided the solidifying boost the team needed. Over the half’s final 7:38, Wisconsin meagerly outscored Northwestern 13-11 but went into the half with their largest lead of the day, 37-30.
Wisconsin built their lead largely without Tonje, their leading scorer, who didn’t score until a vicious dunk at 3:55. From there, Tonje scored on free throws and a turn-around jumper to end the half, but his lack of impact in the game’s first 16 minutes highlighted the hurdles Wisconsin’s offense had to jump to head into the half with a seven-point lead.
Still, Wisconsin left plenty on the table, shooting only 39 percent from the field and 3-12 from three.
Towards the end of the second half, Wisconsin started ramping up on defense, holding Northwestern without a field goal for the half’s final 2:57.
In the second half, this defensive emphasis continued. In the first five minutes of the second half, Northwestern was limited to only one made field goal out of six attempts, and four total points. Meanwhile, Wisconsin used this stretch to build their lead, extending it to 43-36.
Struggling offensively, Wildcat frustrations began to boil over when Martinelli hard-fouled Gilmore on a fast-break dunk. As they landed, the two became entangled, sparking a bit of a scuffle. During the kerfuffle, Klesmit briefly came off the bench, which would have prompted an automatic ejection if not for the dead ball timeout already called. When Northwestern head coach Chris Collins pointed this out, a Wisconsin assistant coach yelled some less-than-friendly remarks down towards the Wildcats bench.
After the skirmish, with Wisconsin leading by 10, they kept their feet on the gas and continued to play well defensively. As Northwestern continued to find the basket, the Badgers were boosted by 3-pointers from Winter, Klesmit and McGee. Along with three free throws from Winter, Wisconsin had grown their lead to 56-42 with 8:58 left to play.
Tonje eventually got in on the 3-point action, hitting two triples to push Wisconsin’s lead into comfortable territory.
As the game waned, Northwestern continued to be phased by Wisconsin’s defense. In the second half, the Wildcats scored 33 points, shot only 34.6%and committed seven turnovers.
With the solid victory, Wisconsin settled much of the nerves that ensued following the startling loss to Penn State. But with UCLA on the horizon, Wisconsin must continue to increase its intensity and re-find its midseason form to play through the weekend.
