Penn State men’s basketball head coach Patrick Chambers was afraid a familiar sight would appear at the Kohl Center Sunday against No. 15 Wisconsin.
Despite the fact the Badgers hadn’t been shooting well as of late – and even worse at home than on the road – Chambers remained uneasy.
And unfortunately for him, his premonition came true: The Badgers (20-7, 9-5 Big Ten) hit 11 of 22 three-pointers against the Nittany Lions (12-16, 4-11 Big Ten) Sunday in a 65-55 win.
“I was scared for many reasons; they just lost to Michigan State, they hadn’t been shooting well and that’s like the perfect storm about to hit you,” Chambers said. “So you knew we could’ve been draped all over them and they were going to hit [shots] – and they did.
“Eleven three’s in a game is just too many. You’re not going to win many games giving up 11.”
Wisconsin picked itself up against the Nittany Lions after a convincing 69-55 loss last Thursday on the road against Michigan State. In turn, the Badgers, for the sixth year in a row, earned its 20th win of the season Sunday and reaffirmed its fourth-place position in the Big Ten standings.
With four games remaining, Wisconsin rests a game and a half ahead of fifth-place Indiana and one game behind Michigan and Ohio State, which are tied for second. Two games separate the Badgers from the first-place Spartans.
Guard Josh Gasser lead the scoring charge against PSU with 15 points while three other Badgers totaled double-digits as well. Jared Berggren added 13 while Jordan Taylor and Ryan Evans scored 11 apiece. Forward Mike Bruesewitz nabbed 12 rebounds while Evans plucked away nine more.
Guard Tim Frazier scored 20 points for Penn State on 9-of-20 shooting while Jermaine Marshall put up 12 more in coming off the bench.
Gasser, Taylor and Berggren all hit three three-pointers each for the Badgers, whose stream of treys really kicked into gear about halfway through the first period.
Leading 12-9, after Taylor had previously sunk two shots from behind the perimeter, UW scored three-pointers on five consecutive possessions. Gasser hit three in a row, which were bookended by downtown lobs from Berggren and Ben Brust.
Evans then hit a jumper – the sixth consecutive shot made for UW – and by the time it was all over, PSU’s three-point deficit inflated to 14 in just four minutes’ time. UW shot 48 percent in the first half compared to PSU’s 35.7 clip and was able to maintain that gap until halftime, leading 35-21.
The Badgers’ offense buzzed with assertiveness all afternoon, and not just from the shooting standpoint. UW showcased sound ball movement in the first half and throughout the game, as assists accompanied nine of the Badgers 12 buckets in the opening period.
For the game, 12 of 20 shots featured an assist for the Badgers.
“After the Michigan State game we pushed the ball a little more,” Bruesewitz said. “We were successful that way. We were more aggressive and rolled with that.”
However, shooting trends for the two teams reversed course in the second half. Wisconsin went on to hit 36.4 percent from the field, despite shooting 50 percent from three, while Penn State heated up and hit at a pace of 42.9 percent.
That turnabout played quite a role in the Nittany Lions’ 13-0 run midway in the second period, dissolving its 20-point deficit to seven.
Wisconsin committed two turnovers and watched six shots go wayward while Frazier and Jon Graham scored 11 of PSU’s 13 points during the run.
That left Penn State just outside striking distance with under seven minutes remaining. But every time the Lions inched closer to the lead, Berggren arrived packing a three-pointer.
Up by five with 5:30 left, Berggren hit his second trey of the game and hit his third about a minute later just after PSU again climbed within six.
After that third and final 3-pointer, Penn State never came within nine points again.
“Those two threes he hit were, to me, the difference because I thought we battled back and we did some good things,” Chambers said. “But they were daggers.”
Wisconsin struggled to attack the rim all day, getting outscored 32-8 in the paint. But according to Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan, Berggren was able to hit all three of his three-point attempts simply because the PSU defense overcompensated in defending the basket.
“If you noticed, it was very difficult trying to get to the rim,” Ryan said. “So Jared was wide open because [Graham] was doing his job taking away the drives.”
