Evanston, Ill. — The men’s basketball team was able to rebound from its loss to Purdue by storming back to beat Northwestern Saturday in Evanston despite several starters being hampered by foul trouble.

Sophomore forward Mike Wilkinson started out the game with a long jumper at the top of the key to put the Badgers on the scoreboard first. However, the Wildcats jumped out to a 6-2 lead after two quick 3-pointers from Aaron Jennings and Mohamed Hachad.

“Tonight we dug in a little tougher and tried to make sure we touched the areas of the floor we try to touch every game,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “Even though they hit two 3s early, we didn’t get down. That was a big test right there — they get up 6-2, then they come down and just miss another three, and they missed a drive, and it very easily could have been 8-2. We hung and fended that off and then got into a little bit of a rhythm.”

The teams traded baskets in the early minutes of the game with four lead changes and two ties.

With 10:48 left in the game, the foul trouble began as junior guard Freddie Owens was whistled for his second personal and was forced to sit out the rest of the half. Point guard Devin Harris followed suit as he received his second foul with 5:03 left in the first half. With 2:37 left in the half, Wilkinson joined his teammates on the bench with his third foul.

Due to the extensive foul trouble, Boo Wade played 15 minutes in the first half without a turnover, and Clayton Hanson saw five minutes of playing time. With an unusual lineup on the court, the Badgers’ lead dwindled all the way down to two points with a little over a minute left. Four Kirk Penney free throws then pushed the lead back up to 35-29 going into halftime.

“It was a struggle; [I wanted to] get to the locker room safe,” Ryan said, explaining his thought to end the half. “It looked like they scored a bucket, but you could see they went over the back and we ended up getting the free throws … Kirk knocks the two free throws down, they don’t score and we come in with a lead. I think that helped us, and I think that was big at the end of the half.”

Forty seconds into the second half Owens received his third foul, and with 18:25 left in the half, Harris was also sent to the bench with his third foul.

This left Wade, the freshman point guard, as the floor leader for the second half, and he took charge, totaling 17 minutes, five points, two assists, one steal and zero turnovers in the half.

“Three assists and no turnovers when they were really putting the heat on him,” Ryan said. “I mean, they were using their hands, they were bumping; that is the type of game it was, and that’s OK, but Boo did not back down; he did not blink. He got our offense running; I mean, he didn’t just get [the ball] across; he sparked the offense and did a real nice job.”

With 15:48 left in the half the Badgers extended the lead to double digits and it would stay in double digits the rest of the game, except for a 27-second stretch when the lead was only nine points.

In addition to foul trouble, the story of the second half was Hanson’s sharp shooting as he played 15 minutes, nearly doubling his career high in one half, and shot a perfect 3 for 3 from the 3-point line.

Another huge performance for the day came from freshman Alando Tucker. The forward played a team-high 39 minutes and contributed 11 points but was more importantly a dominating presence on the boards with eight rebounds, six of them offensive.

“He’s active; I don’t know where we’d be without him,” Ryan said. “The energy he brings around the glass — he did a great job at keeping a lot of those alive that I don’t even know if he got credit for.”

Tucker attributed his performance to better size matchups with the Wildcats, and said he was able to take advantage of his athleticism.

Even with all the huge contributions from the underclassmen, senior Kirk Penney still led the team in scoring with 23 points in 36 minutes of play.

“We just wanted to come back strong with all the effort we could possibly bring, and I think we really did that tonight,” Penney said. “We really gave it everything we had.”