Well, that was quite the wake up call.

It didn’t quite have David-defeating-Goliath proportions, but Western Illinois shocked the Wisconsin men’s basketball team Friday night at the Kohl Center, taking down the Badgers 69-67.

The Fighting Leathernecks (0-1) staked out a 64-56 lead with less than five minutes remaining before the No. 17 Badgers (0-1) began their comeback.

WIU earned a possession with 31.4 seconds remaining. UW freshman Khalil Iverson, who performed admirably in his collegiate debut (six points, seven rebounds, three blocks and three steals) got called for a reach-in foul and WIU’s Garret Covington went to the line for a one-and-one with 10.2 seconds remaining. He’d make both free throws and Bronson Koenig couldn’t get a jumper in the lane to fall in the closing seconds.

The loss was the first time Wisconsin lost its season opener under head coach Bo Ryan.

Western Illinois head coach Billy Wright commended his team for the poise it showed in his first career road victory.

“Obviously I’m thrilled for our program. [I] shed a few tears of joy,” Wright said. “I think that it’s something that can help us move forward.”

Down 64-56, Vitto Brown injected life to the Badgers with a jumper from the top of the key. He then made two free throws to cut the Fighting Leathernecks’ lead to four.

Brown then recorded a block on the other end and a Bronson Koenig step back from the right corner brought the Kohl Center to its feet. But Covington finished an and-one to bring the Fighting Leathernecks up five. Koenig then answered with a three of his own.

That forced Wright to call timeout. Off the ensuing inbound, Khalil Iverson saved a ball heading out of bounds and Brown tied the game up at 67 with a lay in.

“It’s upsetting, knowing that we had control of the game and let it slip away,” Brown said.

Nigel Hayes and Koenig each scored 17 points for the Badgers, who shot just 35.5 percent from the field compared to Leathernecks’ 54 percent.

When it was all said and done, Wisconsin couldn’t blame anybody but themselves. Too many easy drives to the hoop and lackadaisical defense dearly cost UW. Ryan said his team’s defense didn’t rotate or pinch effectively enough, which is something that develops over time.

“I just thought offensively that we would be a little better and we could handle not being very good defensively at this point,” Ryan said.

The Badgers’ defense was shaky from the beginning.

Western Illinois scored on its first three possessions of the game and shot 60.9 percent from the field in the first half. It made all four three-pointers it attempted and led UW 30-29 with 6:34 remaining in the first half.

Hayes scored all of his 17 points in the first half, with seven of those coming on Wisconsin’s 9-0 run to go up 38-30 with just more than four minutes to go in the half.  Koenig hit a spin-around jumper to send the Badgers to the locker room up 44-37.

That didn’t deter the Fighting Leathernecks. They went on a 7-0 run to open the half to tie the game. A lay in from redshirt freshman Ethan Happ, who made his Badgers debut, ended that stretch. Happ finished with four points.

From there, the teams once again exchanged buckets up until the Leathernecks pulled away in the middle of the second half, setting up the Badgers’ unsuccessful comeback and exciting finish.

J.C. Fuller led Western Illinois with 20 points, while Covington added 16. As a team, WIU shot 7-for-9 from three. Hayes said the loss allowed UW to put their defensive failures in perspective.

“I never want to say I’m glad we lost or it’s a good thing we lost, but the fact that it happens allows you to see it better,” Hayes said. “It’s kind of hard to see things. If we win tonight then we don’t talk about how bad we were defensively.”

Wisconsin made up for the disparity in shooting percentages by working hard on the offensive glass, hauling in 18 rebounds on the offensive end. Those second chances resulted in 17 points.

And on a night the program raised a banner commemorating the national runner-ups from a year ago, Friday night served as a sobering reminder that past success does not guarantee future victories. Ryan said the youth of this team means he and the coaching staff have their work cut out for themselves as the season progresses.

“But now you know why I was saying all of the things I was saying earlier about ‘Wow, some days, we got a long way to go.'” Ryan said. “But you guys thought I was saying the same old stuff. I think you see [why] now.”