CHAMPAIGN, Ill.—One down, four to go.
That was the expression voiced by the UW men’s basketball team after its 71-57 victory at Illinois Wednesday night.
“That win by Indiana [last night over Purdue] helped us out a lot,” sophomore guard Jason Bohannon said. “Now our destiny is in our own hands. We got control of how we want to finish out. If we win out right now, we got a conference championship. If we stumble along the way, it’s our own fault.”
Wisconsin (12-2 Big Ten, 22-4) is tied with Purdue atop the Big Ten after its latest win. Bohannon scored 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting, while sophomore guard Trevon Hughes had a team-high 18 points.
Bohannon gave UW a big lift in the first half when it was struggling to pull away from the Illini (3-11, 11-16). Down 10-7 eight minutes into the game, Bohannon scored 11 points in a 19-7 run that turned out to be the crucial point in the game. The sophomore hit all three of his first-half field goals and was 5-for-5 from the free throw line, extending his consecutive made free throw streak to 33, two short of the school record.
“He looked more comfortable on the ankle,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “We limited his repetitions in practice.”
Bohannon tweaked his right ankle last Friday, but has not slowed down, scoring 11 against Minnesota before torching Illinois Wednesday night.
The win was Wisconsin’s second in a row at Assembly Hall. It was redemption in some ways for senior forward Brian Butch, who scored eight points Tuesday night and had never won in Champaign before last season.
“Even though their team is struggling this year, you have the memories of when they kicked your butt, so it’s nice to come in here and get a win,” Butch said. “They’ve had some pretty good teams in the past, and even though they are struggling this year, you can’t feel sorry for them. You still got to take care of business.”
The surprise of the game was the amount of playing time freshman Tim Jarmusz received. After Joe Krabbenhoft was hit with his second foul with four minutes left in the first half, Jarmusz entered the game. He missed his only shot but had one steal and played solid defense in 13 minutes.
“Tim has developed probably more than anyone else in the past two or three weeks as far as defensively what he is doing and decisions with the ball. He’s just tough,” Ryan said.
The head coach added that he gave Jarmusz the heads up ahead of time that he might get some playing time. When Krabbenhoft got his second foul, Ryan said he opted for Jarmusz over classmate Jon Leuer because he is quicker defensively.
“I just thought that he could do a good job when they went small and they got some fouls on some of our smalls,” Ryan said.
Wisconsin can now cross another road test off their schedule as it inches closer to the end of the season. With four games left, the Badgers are guaranteed at least a share of the conference title if they win out.
“Yeah, we would like to get a piece of the conference championship. We said that the first day we were on the job,” Ryan said.
