Luke Recker’s scorching second half was just too much for the Wisconsin men’s basketball team to handle, as the Iowa Hawkeyes defeated the Badgers 58-56 Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. The senior scored 24 of his 28 points in the second stanza as Iowa, the defending Big Ten Tournament champion and the No. 9 nine seed in this year’s event, knocked off the No. 1 Badgers in the biggest upset of this year’s tournament.
Recker shot nine of 14 in the game and scored 16 of Iowa’s final 19 points, including the game-winning shot with 1.2 seconds remaining, to propel the Hawkeyes over UW and into the third round of the Big Ten Tournament.
With the game tied at 56 and eight seconds on the clock, Recker, a 6-foot-6 forward, brought the ball downcourt. Covered by Devin Harris, Recker drove hard to his left, pulled up at the free-throw line and canned a difficult jumper to put Iowa up by two. Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan chose to keep only one defender on Recker, instead of double-teaming the hot-shooting forward and forcing him to pass.
“I was kind of surprised at the way it developed, we just basically wanted to get a good look.” Recker said. “I thought they would send another guy at me, so I told my teammates to be ready for the pass. Fortunately I got to the lane and was able to rise up and hit the jumper. It was one of those things where I just went by what they gave me and luckily it went in.”
With 1.2 seconds on the clock, the Badgers’ final chance for victory was foiled when Chauncey Leslie intercepted Charlie Wills’ long inbounds pass and the clock expired.
“Hats off to Recker,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “He took over the game. I thought we had answers to win today’s game, but I guess not. He made the plays we could not stop.”
Wisconsin threw away an opportunity to take the lead before Recker’s game-winning shot when Devin Harris attempted to get the ball to Mike Wilkinson in the post. Iowa’s Reggie Evans, who played an unusually quiet game, stole the ball and the Hawkeyes called a timeout. It appeared that Harris had an open look from 15 feet, but he passed up the shot when he thought he saw Wilkinson open.
“We got just what we wanted on the last play,” Ryan said. “Devin thought Mike had an easy layup, but [Evans] was in between. Maybe Devin thought he could get the ball over Reggie’s arms with a pass. I am sure now that Devin would not have made the pass if he knew what would have happened. He had an open shot.”
Wisconsin failed to score in the final two minutes of the game but managed to hold a three-point lead until Duez Henderson made his most important play of the season. With 41 seconds remaining in the game, Henderson, a senior forward who has been seeing limited floor time and only played 16 minutes against the Badgers, snuck inside Charlie Wills, grabbed a Reggie Evans miss and muscled the ball in the bucket while getting fouled by Wills.
Henderson calmly hit the ensuing free throw to tie the game at 56 before Recker hit his game-winning shot.
“The ball went to Reggie on the block. He drew a double team and I tried to slide in so he could just drop it down, but he was able to get the shot off,” Henderson said. “I just happened to be in the right position and I went up and was able to put it in.
“It’s not about how many minutes you play at this point in the season, it’s about what you do and how you contribute to the team winning.”
First team all-Big Ten selection Kirk Penney scored 19 points for the Badgers on seven for 11 shooting, including three for four from three-point range. Penney was on fire in the first half, shooting two for three from downtown, but was forced to leave the game after getting called for a charge against Recker with 7:07 remaining in the half.
Charlie Wills was able to score from both the inside and the perimeter, posting 16 points and hitting two three-pointers. Harris scored 14 points and added three steals in 34 minutes.
The trio of Harris, Wills and Penney combined for 49 of the Badgers’ 56 points, shooting an impressive 62 percent from the field. The rest of the Wisconsin squad, however, shot a woeful one for 14 from the field, and UW got points from only two other players, Wilkinson and point guard Travon Davis.
Wisconsin turned the ball over a season-high 22 times in the contest.
Center Dave Mader contributed five of those giveaways while scoring zero points in 21 minutes. Davis, who came into the game fourth in the Big Ten in assist-to-turnover ratio, coughed the ball up four times while shooting zero for five from the field. Davis did grab nine rebounds, one short of his career-high.
After the game, Ryan praised his players for not finding excuses for the loss, which broke a six-game UW winning streak.
“I love the way our kids believe they could have played better today, and they blame all their mistakes on themselves,” Ryan said. “We tried to make some tough passes that were not there today. Maybe winning a [Big Ten] championship allowed our players to think that they can make plays that are not there. Maybe today we forgot what we did early this year that got us to this point.”
