After Michigan's important win this week over Purdue, the UW men's basketball team knew it would be tested when the Wolverines visited the Kohl Center Sunday. Michigan fought back from several big deficits, but clutch defense in the game's final minutes led to a 60-55 win for the Badgers.
Wisconsin (9-7 Big Ten, 18-10 overall) jumped out to a quick start, scoring the game's first eight points. The Badgers tried to take advantage of Michigan's small, four-guard lineup, scoring their first nine field goals in the paint. At the 12:38 mark, Wisconsin held an 18-9 lead.
After a small run by the Wolverines, the Badgers opened up another nine-point lead with less than nine minutes remaining. But Michigan (8-9, 18-12) fought back, led by its two stars, sophomore guard Manny Harris and junior forward DeShawn Sims, who combined for 20 first-half points. Michigan outscored Wisconsin 19-8 to end the half and took a 34-32 lead into halftime.
The Badgers came out strong defensively to open up the second half, as the Wolverines were held without a field goal for the half's first four-plus minutes. Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said his team learned well from some breakdowns in the first half.
""It isn't that we changed anything,"" Ryan said. ""We did some things on the ball-screens—tried to do them a little better—sticking to our roles, making the reads. Once we did that, it gave us that run in the beginning of the second half. We got back to continuing what we do and just tried to do it better.""
Wisconsin got back to its game on the offensive end as well and held a 48-41 lead with eight minutes remaining. But Michigan refused to let the game slip out of control.
The Wolverines trailed 54-52 with less than three minutes remaining, but once again, Wisconsin stepped up defensively in the clutch, forcing two poor possessions for the Wolverines that resulted in consecutive missed 3-pointers by Sims. Despite some struggles at the line, the Badgers' six free throws in the last two minutes were enough to pull out the win.
Senior forward Joe Krabbenhoft was pleased with his team's approach defensively with the game on the line.
""We were just trying to give them nothing easy,"" Krabbenhoft said. ""Michigan was saying, ‘We don't need to force the three,' so we knew they were going to attack, so guys had to be ready to help and recover real quick. I thought we did a really good job of forcing the tough situations.""
Junior guard Trevon Hughes had a team-high 19 points for the Badgers. Ryan was happy with Hughes' patience and recognition of opportunities.
""He was pretty strong with the ball,"" Ryan said. ""He was opportunistic on his shots; he really didn't force anything. He had some pretty good looks, and then I thought he made some good decisions on the shot-clock opportunities that he had.""
Senior forward Marcus Landry also had a strong performance with 13 points, six rebounds and five assists. Michigan's small lineup forced them to pay extra attention to Landry's inside play. Landry responded with several key passes. and Ryan said this was a major asset in making Wisconsin's offense run smoothly.
""He moved the ball well and made some good decisions,"" Ryan said. ""He did a good job of finding people. On quick cuts, when somebody hit him and then made a rim cut, twice in the first half he hit guys for easy layups.""
With just two games left in the regular season, Wisconsin will travel to Minneapolis for a Wednesday night matchup with the Golden Gophers.
