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Scalpers outside the Kohl Center Tuesday night were practically giving away tickets to Wisconsin’s matchup against Idaho State.

Inside the building, the Badgers nearly gave away the game to the Bengals.

Wisconsin shot just 37.7 percent from the field — and only 22.7 percent from beyond the arc — as it narrowly held off Idaho State for a 60-58 win.

Even with time winding down, UW couldn’t close the deal. Idaho State’s Matt Stucki nailed a 3-pointer with just over two seconds to play to cut Wisconsin’s lead to 59-58. The Bengals quickly fouled Badger guard Trevon Hughes, who made the first free-throw attempt but missed the second.

A lane violation on Wisconsin gave Idaho State one last attempt at a game-tying field goal or even a game-winning 3-pointer. Amorrow Morgan inbounded the ball the length of the court to teammate Devidias Busma, who was unable to get a shot off as time expired.

“We rehearsed situations like that in practice and we talk about with two seconds left, three seconds left, we’re probably going to have to throw the long pass,” Idaho State head coach Jim O’Brien said. “We put it in [Devidias’] hands, although it was tipped a couple times. It wasn’t a very well-executed play.”

The way UW head coach Bo Ryan saw it, however, was his team should have never been in that situation.

“If we make our free throws, you’re not talking about a close game,” Ryan said. “We maintain that cushion. But we didn’t, so that ends up being the margin. But you want to put yourself in position to be able to handle people hitting shots at the end.”

For the Bengals (2-6), it was their fourth close loss of the season. O’Brien’s squad fell to Hawaii in overtime and both Boise State and Long Beach State — a team that Wisconsin narrowly beat earlier this season — in double-overtime.

“We have these moral victories, but they don’t go very far,” O’Brien said. “These close losses are getting old.”

Jason Bohannon led all scorers with 18 points, but he certainly didn’t look pretty doing so. Bohannon shot just 4-of-11 from the field, with all but one shot attempt coming from 3-point range. All four of his threes came in the first half.

“There’s a lot of things that kind of stand out, but there’s a lot of things to improve upon,” Bohannon said. “I’m not really looking at the positives right now. I’m looking at things I can get better upon. I think that’s where our whole team is right now. We’re not really satisfied where we’re at.”

Against Idaho State’s zone, Wisconsin tried to capitalize on the open looks from long distance. But with the team taking 22 shots from beyond the arc, it was up to UW’s big men to clean the glass.

They did just that, hauling down 15 offensive boards. Sophomore Jon Leuer collected five on offense, while senior Marcus Landry had three.

“Against the zone, that’s what you’ve got to do,” said Wisconsin forward Joe Krabbenhoft, who finished with nine rebounds. “You’re going to get outside looks from Jason, who shot 40 percent from the three, but there’s going to be some misses so you’ve got to clean those up.”

“That’s what happens when you zone for 40 minutes,” O’Brien said. “Eventually, people figure things out.”

It was Bohannon, however, who was called upon to make Wisconsin’s late free throws with under a minute to play. He finished 6-of-6 on the night from the charity stripe.

While Bohannon capitalized at the free-throw line, the rest of the team struggled, shooting 15-of-22 collectively.

The Badgers were able to build a 10-point lead behind a pair of early 3-pointers by Bohannon but never regained a double-digit advantage the rest of the way. Both teams traded the lead just before halftime, but UW headed into the locker room with the narrow 29-27 edge.

Ryan’s club let the Bengals hang around in the second half, with Stucki giving Idaho State a spark. The ISU guard drained a three to cut UW’s lead to 39-36 with 13 minutes to play and later scooped in a layup to bring his team to within five at 54-49.

But in the end he and the rest of the Bengals couldn’t catch the Badgers, despite Wisconsin’s less-than-stellar overall performance.

“We’ve got to get a lot better,” Landry said. “We’ve got to focus on the things we can get better at. I’m not satisfied with our performance today.”

The UW defense held ISU guard Amorrow Morgan in check. The Bengals’ leading scorer — notching 17 points per game — finished with just eight on the night and only managed one 3-pointer in the first half.

“They started picking up Amorrow a little earlier when he crossed midcourt (after halftime),” O’Brien said. “That rattled us a little bit in the second half.”

Jon Leuer was the only player to score off the bench for Wisconsin, finishing with 11 points and seven boards in 23 minutes.

Turnovers plagued the Badgers against Marquette over the weekend, when they gave the ball away 16 times. Tuesday, Idaho State forced Wisconsin to turn it over just seven times.

“We learned a lot on how to take care of the ball,” Bohannon said. “That’s a big jump from what we had last game. We continue to get better based on the experience we have.”