The 125th chapter of the I-94 rivalry took place this Saturday, this time in the brand-new Fiserv Forum that is home to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team traveled just 77 miles down the interstate to take on the Marquette Golden Eagles. The Badgers are currently ranked No. 12 in the nation but they fell short with a score of 69–74 to the Golden Eagles, giving them their 58th win in the series. Though Wisconsin still leads the series 67–58.
There was no breathing room in this back and forth battle as no team led by no more than six points at any point. The game was so close it even took an extra five minutes in an overtime period to decide the winner. A lack of composure is ultimately what lead to the fall of the Wisconsin offense at the end of the game and what helped Marquette cling to a small lead before winning by five.
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Marquette missed six consecutive free throws which allowed the Badgers for three attempts to cut into their four-point deficit with under a minute left to play. D’Mitrik Trice missed a three-point attempt coming off a ball screen, only before turning the ball over on the very next possession. Wisconsin’s final attempt to stay in the game was another missed three-point attempt, this time missed by Brevin Pritzl.
Marquette finished plus five in the rebound margin which they used to dominate the Badgers 14–2 in second-chance points. On top of that, Wisconsin had an uncharacteristic number of fouls with 21 which lead to the Golden Eagles converting 22 of 34 on free throw attempts.
Ethan Happ had yet another tremendous game and led all scorers finishing with 34 points and 11 rebounds while shooting at an impressive rate of 76.2 percent. Happ simply just did not get as much help as was necessary, Trice finished with 10 points, Reuvers had 11 points and Alem Ford tallied eight points, but besides that, most of the Badgers were quiet tonight.
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Markus Howard led the Golden Eagles to a victory with 27 points and four assists and shot 12 for 15 from the free throw line. The Hauser brothers, Joey and Sam, combined for five three-pointers and a total of 28 points in the win. Despite only shooting 35.4 percent from the field, the Golden Eagles found a way to win by controlling the boards and containing Wisconsin from beyond the arc.
Wisconsin is back in action Thursday when they take on Savannah State at the Kohl Center.
