The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s offense was as bad as it has been all season, as the Badgers ended Friday’s second-round game against No. 10 Pittsburgh with a season-low 47 points.

Luckily for them, that total was just enough.

A stout defensive effort led the No. 7 Wisconsin to a remarkable 47-43 comeback victory over the Panthers, advancing them to the second round of the NCAA tournament, where they will play either No. 2 Xavier or No. 15 Weber State.

Offensively, it was junior forward Vitto Brown who was the star for the Badgers, finishing with 11 points and hitting a pair of threes in the final five minutes to put Wisconsin up at two different points in the game. His second ended up being the most important, as with 2:37 left in the outing and UW down one, Brown took a pass from redshirt freshman Ethan Happ and hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc.

The Badgers went up 42-40 and never lost the lead from that point, despite the fact that Pittsburgh had one last chance to take the lead with five seconds remaining.

It was surprising, however, that Wisconsin was even in a position to win, given how the game started.

Pittsburgh jumped out to an early 13-3 lead as the Badgers could get absolutely nothing going on offense, missing nine of their first 10 shots and scoring just six points in the first 14 minutes of the game.

With a hot end to the half, however, Wisconsin pulled to within six as they entered the locker room at half down 22-16. From there, they carried any leftover momentum into the final 20 minutes and slowly chipped away at the Panthers’ lead.

Happ led the team in scoring with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, while also grabbing nine rebounds. Junior forward Nigel Hayes added 12 points of his own despite shooting a weak 3-of-17 from the field and missing all six of his shots from behind the arc. Bronson Koenig also struggled, shooting just 1-of-8 from the field and scoring two points, but he did manage to grab seven rebounds and record three of the team’s six steals.

By the numbers

3:44 – The amount of time that passed at the start of the game before the Badgers scored their first point, a 3-pointer from redshirt junior guard Zak Showalter.

4 – The amount of combined field goals Hayes and Koenig made.

21 – The amount of combined field goals Hayes and Koenig missed.

9 – The amount of points Pittsburgh junior guard Seldon Jeter scored off the bench. Jeter was recruited by the Badgers out of high school.

1:14 – The amount of time the Badgers had held a lead for before Brown’s second go-ahead 3-point shot.

3 – The number of games Wisconsin now has to win in order to make a third-straight Final Four.