[media-credit name=’YANA PASKOVA/Herald Photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]EVANSTON, Ill. — Head coach Bo Ryan referred to it as the tale of two games. Point guard Kammron Taylor called it a tale of two halves.

Either way, Thursday night was most definitely the worst of times for the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team, whose three-game winning streak came to an end at the hands of Northwestern, 62-51 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

"At our place, we had some guys step up and hit some shots," Ryan said, harking back to UW's 68-52 victory Jan. 14 in Madison. "Here, we didn't. … On the road, each team got out of sync on the offensive end."

"We just didn't come out and play," an exasperated Brian Butch said after the game. "We knew what we were playing for, we knew what we had to do; we just didn't get it done. That is the frustrating part.

"We just didn't match their intensity."

The Badgers (18-8, 8-5 Big Ten) equaled their season-low for points scored in a game as the Wildcats (13-12, 5-8) 1-3-1 zone appeared to baffle UW, especially in the second half, where the team's ball movement took a dive and outside shots began to mount.

"We relied too much on our outside shot instead of trying to get it into the paint because when we got it into the paint, I think good things happened," said Taylor, who was limited to 11 points, going 4-for-14 from the field. "In the first half, we did a good job of attacking the zone. … In that second half, we didn't look to attack at all."

Wisconsin was outscored 32-18 in the paint, made most apparent by Butch, as the sophomore forward was able to net only two points, though he grabbed nine rebounds.

"It was just a lack of execution more than anything," Butch said. "It shouldn't have been that hard [breaking their zone]. We practiced for four days, we've seen them, we've played them once before. It was just a lack of execution."

While the Badgers held the Big Ten's leading scorer, Vedran Vukusic, in check for most of the night, Northwestern guard Mohamed Hachad was a different story. Vukusic, who was fighting a stomach ailment, was limited to 13 points. Hachad, however, did as he pleased against the UW defense, torching the Badgers for a career-high 25 points on 11-of-17 shooting.

Coming off screens and out of cuts, Hachad repeatedly zigged and zagged his way to the basket, to the Badgers' dismay.

"Everybody knows about his slashing," Ryan said. "He delivered. He's pretty tough."

Hachad, who was still fighting illness and injury from an emergency appendectomy in the first meeting between the two teams, made up for lost time in the opening half, scoring 15 points and making seven of his 11 shots.

"He was terrific out there from the get-go, cutting hard and doing things," Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said. "He is a risk-taker, and tonight it worked out well for us."

In the first half, Vukusic and Hachad combined to take 20 of the Wildcats' 27 shots and scored 26 of Northwestern's 31 points, but Wisconsin was able to keep the game close throughout the first 20 minutes, never falling back by more than five points and heading into the half trailing 31-28.

Coming out of the locker room, the Wildcats continued to hold onto their lead, with Hachad almost matching the Badgers point-for-point, and by the 15-minute mark, Northwestern pushed the UW deficit to double digits, leading by as many as 12.

"That was the main thing — we lost our composure," said forward Alando Tucker, who had a team-high 14 points but might have been limited by a sore ankle that forced him to miss parts of practice during the week. "They got a lot of easy baskets, and that is something that we do not usually allow."

It wasn't until only two-and-a-half minutes remained that the Badgers even threatened again. After a 3-pointer by sophomore Michael Flowers, who was seen icing his left hand after the game, Wisconsin trailed by seven and went to a very effective full-court press that caused Northwestern to burn three timeouts within 30 seconds and forced three turnovers.

UW would draw no closer than five in the end, though, as missed free throws and turnovers of their own sealed the Badgers' fate. Northwestern made 15 consecutive free throws down the stretch, shooting 18-of-24 from the charity stripe overall. Wisconsin conversely made only nine of its 18 free-throw attempts.

"We got them into foul trouble and we got to go to the free-throw line, and we just weren't hitting our free throws in the first half," Taylor said.

"The key is don't get behind," Ryan said. "Then you don't have to foul."