After a thrilling overtime victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Wisconsin men's basketball team fell to the No. 4 seed Xavier Musketeers by a score of 60-49, putting an end to their season.
The contest opened with a low-scoring, defensive battle characteristic of both teams' styles of play. Wisconsin allowed just two Musketeer points in the game's first five minutes. But the Badgers also had trouble finding an offensive rhythm.
As the half continued, junior guard Trevon Hughes began to heat up and helped UW to a 27-25 lead at the break.
Wisconsin came out of the intermission on a tear, pushing the lead to 33-26. But then Xavier fought back with nine unanswered points.
With 8:57 left, Xavier finally took control with a 13-4 run that would ultimately end Wisconsin's season. After the game, Hughes talked about how Wisconsin's little mistakes added up in a big way.
""They took the momentum from us, and they never looked back from there,"" Hughes said. ""At the same time, we have to take care of the ball a little bit better. We had seven turnovers.""
Throughout the game, the Badgers suffered from poor shooting and several scoreless streaks. Wisconsin shot just 16-for-56 from the field, including 3-for-20 from 3-point range.
Senior forward Marcus Landry finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds in his final game for Wisconsin. Hughes added 17 points, shooting 11-for-13 from the free-throw line but just 3-for-16 from the field.
Friday night's first-round matchup resulted in a more positive outcome for Hughes, who hit a dramatic, game-winning shot in overtime over the No. 5 Florida State Seminoles to propel the Badgers to a 61-59 win.
With just 8.3 seconds left in the extra period, Hughes drove into the lane, flipped in a shot over two Florida State defenders and drew a foul. Hughes hit the free throw and deflected Florida State's inbound pass to finish off the win.
""I was making bonehead plays, and Coach put me in with the ball in my hand at the end, and it meant a lot,"" Hughes said of the last shot. ""I owed it to my teammates; I didn't want this to be the last game.""
Junior guard Jason Bohannon finished with 16 points, including four 3-pointers after halftime. Sophomore forward Keaton Nankivil was a spark off the bench, scoring with 14 points.
Although the Badgers were disappointed with their loss, Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan was still proud of how his team persevered this season.
""What they have accomplished after we hit a rough stretch early in the Big Ten to be in the big dance and to last a couple days, that's pretty exciting,"" Ryan said. ""The fact that they were gritty enough to be able to get to play a couple more games and represent the University of Wisconsin, I'm extremely proud of them.""
—NCAA.com contributed to this report.
