The Wisconsin men’s basketball team might have just punched their ticket to the big dance.
The Badgers (18-10, 10-5 Big Ten) put together one of their best team efforts of the season as they took down the No. 8 Hawkeyes Wednesday 67-59.
Bronson Koenig led the way for the Badgers, scoring a team-high 15 points while shooting four-of-six from behind the arc. Nigel Hayes had a rough outing, shooting just three-of-11 from the field, but was the only other Badger to reach double digit-scoring with 10 points.
Hayes did, however, hit the biggest shot of the game for UW. With 1:42 left and Wisconsin up by just one, Hayes knocked down his second and most important three-pointer of the game.
From there, the Badgers never looked back, and junior guard Zak Showalter hit a driving layup on the next possession, and Ethan Happ sealed the game with a steal just six seconds later.
Despite the excellent play from the team’s starters down the stretch, it was freshman guard Khalil Iverson’s play off the bench, especially in the first half, that ignited UW.
Iverson scored nine points on four-of-seven shooting from the field. Three of those four field goals were baseline dunks, one of which went down like this:
https://vine.co/v/i6qDjH6hZJY
The key to victory for UW was the way they contained Iowa’s (20-7, 11-4 Big Ten) potential All-American in Jarrod Uthoff. The former Badger shot just two-of-nine from three, three-of-12 overall from the field and finished with just 11 points. Uthoff also was forced to sit out for long stretches due to foul trouble throughout the game.
Hawkeye junior guard Peter Jok put on a show in the first half in Uthoff’s absence, scoring 17 of the team’s 34 points. Wisconsin, however, managed to shut down Jok in the final 20 minutes, limiting him to just four points as the Hawkeyes struggled mightily on offense down the stretch.
The Badgers will head back home Sunday to take on the Wolverines in their final game of the regular season at the Kohl Center.
https://vine.co/v/i6q0UnMAIKB
By the numbers
2 – The number of points freshman forward Charlie Thomas had scored in his previous five games. He had five points in seven minutes off the bench Wednesday.
6:01 – The amount of time to end the game that the Badgers held the Hawkeyes without a field goal.
0 – The amount of wins Uthoff has against the Badgers since transferring from Wisconsin.
1954-55: The last season the Badgers defeated two top-10 teams on the road.
2 – Vitto Brown’s career-high in assists entering Wednesday night. He had four against the Hawkeyes.
20 – The amount of offensive rebounds the Hawkeyes had Wednesday night. The Badgers are the worst defensive rebounding team in the Big Ten.
3 – The number of steals the Big Ten leader in steals, Ethan Happ, had against Iowa. He is averaging nearly two per game.
