It's not over 'til the... polar bear sings?
As 17,320 stunned fans looked on, senior forward Brian Butch's bank shot 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left gave No.15 Wisconsin a 68-66 win over No.13 Indiana Wednesday at Assembly Hall. It was the Badgers' first win in Bloomington since 2004.
I told Brian in the locker room that they discounted it because he didn't call it and that we lost and the game was over,"" head coach Bo Ryan said. ""There was silence for two seconds and then somebody yelled 'let's get on the plane.' And that was it.""
Butch scored all 13 of his points in the second half, but the star of the night was sophomore guard Jason Bohannon. The Iowa native hit six 3-pointers and pulled down three boards.
""There was a lot of good looks ... a lot of it had to do with guys setting picks on the inside,"" Bohannon said. ""Marcus [Landry] or Brian kind of stuck there and set a little pick there on the back side and it opened me up for a few shots.""
The teams played a tight first half. Indiana went up by eight early in the game, but Wisconsin repeatedly closed the gap.
UW hung in on the strength of torrid 3-point shooting as they connected on 8-of-15 shots from long distance.
D.J. White powered the offense for Indiana, scoring the first six points of the game and 14 in the first half to go with three blocked shots. At the break, Wisconsin trailed 37-36.
The game's second half was nearly as close as the first. Indiana freshman guard Eric Gordon scored 17 of his 23 points after intermission, and neither team led by more than six.
The Badgers took a one-point lead five separate times in the second half, but each time the Hoosiers reasserted their advantage. The last one came with 28 seconds left in the game.
Junior forward Landry took the ball from the top of the key, drove, spun and fired a fade-away jump shot from just inside the free throw line. The shot kicked off of the back of the rim but Landry cut to the basket and tipped in the errant attempt.
On Indiana's ensuing possession, senior guard Michael Flowers (15 points, seven rebounds) fouled Gordon, who calmly hit both of his free throws, giving his team the 66-65 advantage.
After advancing the ball to midcourt, Ryan called a timeout to set up a final play. Wisconsin inbounded the ball to Landry with 12 seconds remaining. Moments later, Landry handed the ball to Butch, and he nailed the jumper off the glass.
""I really thought I was [going to] make it ... it left my hand and I was like well I think its [going to] go,"" Butch said ""I thought there was enough on it to let it go. I didn't think it was [going to] bank in, but once it banked in I was big smiles.""
The last ditch 3-pointer from Hoosier junior swingman Jamarcus Ellis came up empty as the clock ran out.
Sophomore point guard Trevon Hughes continued his recent struggles missing six three-point shots and turning the ball over three times.
Both squads took care of the ball all game, combining for just 14 giveaways. The Badgers did most of their damage from beyond the arc hitting 42 percent of their threes compared to 23 percent for Indiana.
However, the Badgers did not follow their usual modus operandi as it was the Hoosiers who hit more free throws than Wisconsin attempted. UW only went to the line six times, shooting 15 fewer than their season average.
The loss for Indiana comes on the heels of a report from the NCAA that alleges Hoosier coach Kelvin Sampson committed five major recruiting violations. He committed similar violations near the end of his tenure at Oklahoma. Sampson's contract has a clause which allows IU to fire him upon committing certain infractions.
- Brad Fedie contributed to this report.
