The sour taste of the Badgers' first Big Ten loss at Indiana last Wednesday needed to be washed away. A win over the Northwestern Wildcats certainly helped.
Despite a late push by Northwestern, the Wisconsin Badgers (8-1 Big Ten, 22-2 overall) handily defeated the Wildcats (1-8, 11-11) 69-52 at the Kohl Center Saturday afternoon. The victory gave the Badgers a chance to start a new winning streak after their nation-high and school-record 17-game winning streak was ended in Bloomington.
""We always talk about that we have to stay aggressive every game, but I think at times some losses are key,"" senior forward Alando Tucker said. ""That's a key loss for us right now, early in the second half of the Big Ten. It re-lit our fire.""
With just under nine minutes remaining in the game, junior center Greg Stiemsma scored on a nice pass from sophomore forward Marcus Landry. The basket stretched the Badger lead to 24 at 62-38, the largest it had been all day.
But the Wildcats did not fold. A late 14-0 run, started by the impressive freshman forward Kevin Coble, brought the Badgers within 10. Coble, who led all scorers with 24, shot 10-of-17 from the field.
Despite not converting on a field-goal attempt for almost six minutes, the Badgers were able to rebound, ending the game with a 7-0 run. The last basket came on a layup by senior forward Alando Tucker with 20 seconds left, giving him 20 points for the game.
""We just have to make sure that we do a better job of closing out,"" said senior guard Kammron Taylor, who finished with his second straight 15-point performance. ""We can't let teams get back like Northwestern did.""
The game started off going back-and forth. The Northwestern defense seemed like they might be able to stay with UW, at least for a time. After Tucker knocked down a jumper to put the Badgers up 11-4, Wisconsin was stuck on 11 for seven more minutes until junior forward Brian Butch stepped to the free-throw line.
Unfortunately for Northwestern, their offense could not perk up when their defense did, and the Badgers soon found their rhythm. Tucker scored 13 of his team-high 20 points in the first half.
An exciting play concluded the half. Tucker stole the ball, tapped it ahead to a streaking Taylor, who missed a layup. Then sophomore forward Joe Krabbenhoft rebounded the ball and converted on an eventual 3-point play to give the Badgers a 33-19 lead at halftime.
And UW picked up where they left off when the second half began. A Butch slam to open the half and back-to-back 3-pointers by junior guard Michael Flowers, who had 12 points, and Tucker sent UW rolling.
The Badgers were able to run through a to-do list successfully Saturday. They only committed five fouls, allowing the Wildcats to shoot only two free throws, turned the ball over only nine times, and out-rebounded NU 37-21.
Wisconsin heads to Penn State Wednesday to take on the Nittany Lions. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
