MINNEAPOLIS — After a dominant showing Thursday, the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team kept the ball rolling against Northwestern University behind a career-high 30 points (10-for-16 FG) from guard AJ Storr. UW’s victory came despite the absence of point guard Chucky Hepburn, who was held out due to a lower body injury. Hepburn’s injury opened up the path for guard John Blackwell to make his first career start.

Hepburn’s absence was a last-minute decision.

“[He] tried to get it to go a little bit and tried to warm up,” head coach Greg Gard said postgame. “I was told about 30 minutes before the game that he wasn’t going to [play].”

Gard also attributed the surprise absence to some of the Badgers’ defensive struggles to open up the game, going down 21–10 behind 16 points from Boo Buie, who was expected to be guarded by Hepburn. After the slow start, the team settled into the assignment, holding Buie scoreless in the first half after that point.

The injuries didn’t stop with Hepburn, as Blackwell sported a noticeable limp in the second half after injuring his right ankle — which he had iced in the locker room post-game — late in the first period. Forward Tyler Wahl also made a quick trip to the locker room and had his minutes monitored down the stretch with what seems to be a knee injury.

Still, the Badgers marched on to the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals.

“Between foul trouble and guys a little banged up here or there [it was] a terrific team effort,” Gard said. “Everybody gave us quality minutes.”

Point guard Kamari McGee played a massive role down the stretch for UW. McGee tallied four points and facilitated the offense with ease, in addition to being key on the defensive end for the Badgers.

This included a must-see block in transition and an assist to Storr on the ensuing possession.

“I didn’t know he could jump that high,” Gard said of McGee’s block, while Storr joked postgame that McGee looked like him.

Outside of Storr, UW got 19 points and seven rebounds from forward Steven Crowl — who knocked down three 3-pointers for a second straight game — and 10 points and seven assists from guard Max Klesmit. As a team, the Badgers shot 10-for-22 from three (45.5%) and limited Northwestern players aside from Buie to 28.9 percent shooting from the field.

After the two teams combined to start 1-for-12 from the field in the first four minutes, Buie caught fire, hitting four threes in the next three minutes and leading the Wildcats to a 21–10 lead with 12 minutes left in the half.

From there, it was all UW.

The Badgers scored on three straight possessions following the 12-minute mark to cut the lead to six, then put the clamps down on defense. Prior to Luke Hunger’s jumper with eight seconds left in the half, Northwestern went 1-for-14 from the field over 11 minutes and endured a scoring drought of nearly five minutes.

On the offensive end, UW piled on a 16–2 run to not only get back in the game but take the lead and land a 33–29 halftime advantage.

Coming out of the break, Northwestern rallied to tie the game at 38 following a brief 7–0 run. But, Storr eviscerated any momentum the Wildcats had built on the very next possession, crossing up Nick Martinelli and hitting a step-back 3-pointer to give the advantage back to UW.

UW retained the lead until the final buzzer, laying claim to the nine-point win to clinch their first Big Ten Tournament Semifinals berth since 2019.