[media-credit name=’Ben Smidt’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Led by a 32-point outburst from guard Vincent Grier, Minnesota (16-6, 6-3 Big Ten) took down Wisconsin (15-5, 6-3) 60-50 Saturday at Williams Arena. With the win, the Gophers pulled even with the Badgers for third-place in the Big Ten standings behind Illinois and Michigan State.

Wisconsin led 24-22 at the half, but the Gophers outscored the Badgers 38-26 in the second stanza as Grier scored 26 of his career-high 32 points after the intermission. The Minnesota standout knocked down 12 of his 14 attempts from the field in the second half.

“I thought Grier was a little selfish in the second half,” UW head coach Bo Ryan joked after the game. “You can’t make 12 of out 14 field goals against us like that. Share the ball a little bit.”

Wisconsin took an early 3-1 lead on a 3-pointer from forward Mike Wilkinson before Minnesota exploded on a 14-2 run to take a 15-5 lead with 14:50 to play in the first half. The Gophers seemed to be running away with it until the Badgers countered with a three from guard Kammron Taylor and a lay-up from forward Ray Nixon to cut the lead to 16-10 at the 12:50 mark.

After Minnesota extended the lead to 20-13 on an inside bucket from center Jeff Hagen, Wisconsin rattled off an 11-2 run to take the lead, 24-22, with 4:53 remaining in the first half.

Wilkinson kicked off the run with a baseline drive for a lay-up. Two UW possessions later guard Sharif Chambliss knocked down a three to cut the lead to two, prompting Minnesota head coach Dan Monson to call for a timeout. After the timeout, a pair of free throws from forward Brian Butch evened the score at 22-22. Forward Alando Tucker capped the Wisconsin run with a lay-up off a feed from Chambliss to put the Badgers in front.

Both teams went cold over the next five minutes, and the Badgers entered the locker room with a 24-22 lead. The Gophers did not score in the last 7:41 of the first half, allowing Wisconsin to take the lead.

Minnesota’s trademark pressure defense forced eight UW turnovers in the opening stanza, leading to an 11-3 edge for the Gophers in points off turnovers. Behind a strong half from Hagen, the Gophers also dominated down low, posting an 18-8 advantage in points in the paint.

The two teams traded blows early in the second half, as Wilkinson and Grier took control. Wisconsin opened a seven-point lead on a three from Wilkinson, but Grier answered with a pair of jumpers to slice the lead to one, 27-26. After Wilkinson hauled in an offensive board and scored with a left-handed hook off the glass, Grier again had the answer with another mid-range jumper.

Minnesota took the lead 30 seconds later on a jumper from Dan Coleman, but the Badgers quickly regained the advantage on a Chambliss runner in the lane to bring the score to 31-30. The lead traded hands again on a Hagen bucket inside to put the Gophers on top 32-31 with 16:45 to play.

Then Grier took over. The Gopher standout scored his team’s next 10 points to lead a 16-7 run that put Minnesota on top 48-38 at the 8:26 mark.

Ray Nixon slowed down the Gopher charge with a pair of lay-ups to cut the lead to 48-42, but the Badgers had no answer for Grier. The Minnesota guard again poured in his team’s next 10 points with a barrage of mid-range jumpers, and the Gophers extended the lead to 12 points, 58-46 with 1:23 on the clock.

“He got hot,” Tucker said of Grier’s string of mid-range jumpers. “Early in the first half, he missed a couple of those, and just in the second half he got hot. The team, they kept feeding him. They saw that he was hot, and they just kept going to him.”

From there, the Badgers were forced to foul to stop the clock, and the Gophers closed it out with free throws from Grier and Rico Tucker.

The Badgers matched the Gophers down low in the second stanza, outscoring Hagen and Co. 12-11 in the paint and posting an 11-0 second-half edge in second chance points. But the Gophers’ pressure defense overwhelmed the Badgers on the perimeter, leading to a 12-2 Minnesota advantage in points off turnovers.

In the end, Grier was the difference. The Minnesota standout scored more than half of his team’s points, as no other Gopher posted more than eight points on the afternoon. Grier rarely left the floor, logging 38 minutes in the victory.

The surprise Gophers, who have climbed into position to make a run at the NCAA tournament, proved too much for the Badgers in the Barn. Coach Ryan hopes the loss will provide a wake-up call for his squad.

“We knew what we were going to face coming in here,” Ryan said. “Sometimes you have to get scalded — touch the stove, realize it’s hot and try not to go back and touch it when it’s hot again.”