The men’s basketball team dropped a road game against perennial conference doormat Northwestern Wednesday evening, while the women’s basketball team lost its fourth consecutive game at the Kohl Center against Michigan State. Each team had put itself in good position early in the conference season, but both have recently stumbled.

The final score at the Kohl Center was 58-57 as Badgerball was once again unable to take care of the basketball, turning it over 17 times. The game featured five lead changes and eight tie scores as Wisconsin’s Jessie Stomski kept the Badgers close with a game high 25 points. But in the end the Spartan zone was too much to overcome.

“That zone — we didn’t hit a lot of outside jumpers against it, so that makes it pretty tough when you have to rely on the post game,” said Albright. “Some nights we do hit those jumpers, and we’ll keep taking them.”

At Northwestern, the men’s team was plagued by poor free-throw shooting down the stretch. After trailing by over 10 points in the second half, sophomore Freddie Owens rallied the team, scoring 16 straight points to get the team within two points. Owens was 7-8 from the field and three for three from the charity stripe.

However, the Badger rally stalled there when Northwestern committed several fouls and Wisconsin missed the front end of bonus situations on several consecutive possessions. The Badgers shot an abysmal 42.9 percent from the line while the Wildcats connected on 81.5 percent of their attempts. The loss drops the Badgers to 12-10 overall and 5-4 in the Big Ten.

— Compiled from staff reports