[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′]
[/media-credit]Midway through the second half of No. 2 Wisconsin’s 69-64 victory over Purdue, sophomore Joe Krabbenhoft jogged off to take a seat on the bench, but was rebuffed when junior forward Brian Butch informed him that it was in fact Jason Chappell that was getting a breather.
Krabbenhoft gave a look of half-bewilderment, in talking with Butch for a moment, as if to ask, “Are you sure you want to take HIM out of the game?”
It was an unusual moment, as for once it was Chappell, the senior, blue-collar, hard-nosed forward who was the star of the show, sparking Wisconsin (18-1, 4-0 Big Ten) out of an offensive malaise in the second half to help push the Badgers over the Boilermakers (13-6, 2-3 Big Ten) at the Kohl Center Wednesday night.
As the Badgers found themselves in another typical Big Ten tooth-and-nail struggle against the Boilermakers, Chappell — who all year long has often been left completely alone on the perimeter — hit two three-pointers, the second of which gave Wisconsin a one-point lead they would not relinquish.
“My teammates at halftime told me to shoot the ball because we needed that to extend their defense a little bit,” Chappell said. “Everybody else really couldn’t get anything down low because my guy was just sitting in the paint.”
And Purdue head coach Matt Painter said Chappell’s two three-pointers were “huge” for the Badgers, and called it a “changing point” in the game.
Chappell finished with 13 points, one of four Badgers to reach double-figures in scoring as Alando Tucker (14), Kammron Taylor (13) and Michael Flowers (15) all chipped in offensively.
Tucker and Taylor, however, had off-nights shooting the basketball, with the two seniors combining to go 7-of-26 (27 percent) from the field.
According to Painter, that was by design, as he said the strategy was to focus all of his team’s attention on Tucker and Taylor.
“I have all the respect in the world for those guys,” Painter said. “When you play these guys at home, you have to make somebody else beat you, and tonight they had guys step up and make plays.”
After the game, Tucker credited his teammates for doing just that, adding his teammates have been stepping up for him all year on nights where he has struggled.
“We have three other guys on the court that have proven to be a threat and Mike and Jason just proved that tonight,” Tucker said. “They were big. Mike, his plays were energizing and we feed from things like that.”
Chappell, also known by his nickname of J-Cheezy, opened up a can of E-Z Cheese on the Boilermakers, and not just with his three-point shooting. Chappell also pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, dished out a team-best four assists and also threw in a block for good measure.
The Badgers as a whole protected the ball well, only turning the ball over seven times throughout the entire contest. In contrast, Purdue’s Carl Landry — the brother of Wisconsin’s Marcus Landry — had six turnovers alone.
“When he made a move, a couple times we had people that pinched down and made him turn it over, which helped,” Chappell said.
Landry finished with 16 points, but was mostly ineffective after making four of his first five shots.
Meanwhile, Chappell heated up as the game progressed. Early in the contest, fans in the Kohl Center could be heard groaning and generally feeling uneasy as the son of NBA-great Len Chappell continued to hesitate and hold on to the ball while standing unguarded on the perimeter. After the half, however, that all changed, and so did the complexion of the game.
“He was patient,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “Hitting those outside shots. They were leaving outside shooters open, and if you don’t knock some of those down, it tends to change what you’re trying to do.”
