EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern’s Vedran Vukusic and Jitim Young scored 18 and 17 points respectively as Northwestern upset Wisconsin, 69-51, before a capacity crowd at Welsh-Ryan Arena Saturday.
The Badgers were forced to play catch-up for almost the entire game, giving up an early lead to let the Wildcats score 15 straight points in a 34-11 run over the final 13:30 of the first half.
Northwestern Junior Davor Duvancic hit three three-point shots during the stretch, and the team shot an incredible 59.1 percent from the field in the first half for a 17-point halftime advantage.
Northwestern, who improved to 7-2 at home this season, used their speed and solid zone defense to keep the Badgers from getting the ball into the post and drawing fouls.
“We tried to put pressure on whomever had the ball, because Wisconsin can hurt you in so many ways,” Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said. “Things went our way, and we got energy from it. I thought our defense was good.”
Once drawn out from their inside game, the Badgers started to settle for jump shots around the perimeter of the Northwestern defense, but Wisconsin’s shots seemed a little off the entire game.
“That’s when the game started to get away a little bit; (it) was when we started to depend on our perimeter game instead of posting up,” Wisconsin guard Devin Harris said.
Harris, who had scored 97 points over Wisconsin’s previous three games, was held to just 4-of-18 shooting from the field including 2-of-8 from beyond the arc, finishing with a team high 16 points. The junior played all 40 minutes and added six assists and six rebounds.
The Badgers used an 18-8 run to start the second half to pull within 10 with 11:30 remaining in the game. Zach Morley knocked in two three-pointers during the run, which culminated in a Harris to Morley alley-oop on a backdoor cut.
“We had the run going and everybody wanted to do the right thing,” Morley said. “But at the same time, everybody sped up a bit too much instead of just staying focused.”
Northwestern swingman Mohamed Hachad knocked in a long three-pointer, which allowed the Wildcats to regain control after Wisconsin’s Mike Wilkinson knocked in an easy two.
“They hit some big threes,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “When you play a team like this, if they are going to hit the threes, that’s three points on a possession and that’s hard to get back, and that’s how it got away from us.”
The Badgers made it to the line a season low nine times, converting eight free throws. When Wisconsin forced Northwestern to the line the Wildcats answered, connecting 19-of-21 from the charity stripe.
Northwestern’s Young, the team’s lone senior contributor, added four rebounds, four assists and four steals to his 17 point performance. Vukusic added a game-high seven rebounds. The Badgers won the slim rebounding battle, 29 to 28. Similarly, Wisconsin edged Northwestern in the turnover battle, but still committed 12, including three from Harris.
“They were putting a lot of pressure on the ball and trying to run a lot of people at everyone,” said Wilkinson, who was limited to just eight points and three rebounds. “They did a good job of keeping it out of the post for the most part. We had a bunch of open looks we just have to knock them down.”
Northwestern improved to 4-5 in conference play and 9-11 overall. With the loss, Wisconsin fell to 6-2 in-conference and surrendered first place to Michigan State, who sailed past Ohio State Saturday. The Badgers still hold the best overall record in the Big Ten at 15-4.
“You just have to learn from it,” Wilkinson said. “We have to take what we didn’t do here and work on the next game and try and do it there.”
