In a Valentine’s Day matchup between two teams that don’t like each other much, Wisconsin came out on top 64-59 over Michigan. The victory was a massive one for the Badgers as they are walking the tightrope of either making or missing the NCAA Tournament.
Led by freshman phenom Connor Essegian, who scored 23 points (6-12 FG, 2-7 3Pt, 9-10 FT), Wisconsin was able to hold off their Big Ten foe on Tuesday night at the Kohl Center.
In what was a neck and neck contest, the Badgers were fortunate to come out with a victory. After heading into halftime down 32-31, they were able to take advantage of some costly turnovers by Michigan to give them the edge in the second half. The team was able to turn seven Wolverine mistakes into nine points on the opposite end in the second period compared to Michigan’s inability to do anything with three Wisconsin turnovers.
Overall in the game, the Badgers shot a lower percentage (33%) than the Wolverines (42%) and they failed to score in the fastbreak, but their superior free-throw shooting (14-18 = 78% vs 6-10 = 60%) gave them the edge, especially when they only made two of their last 18 shots and went the 10:45 without a field goal.
Most importantly, it seemed fitting that the Badgers would beat Juwan Howard and his Wolverines on Valentine’s Day in his first trip back to Madison after his cheap shot on assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft last February. Additionally, big man Hunter Dickinson of Michigan described the Badgers as “scumbags” in an interview in early January, so it must have been very gratifying for the team to limit him to just 12 points.
Although the win is nice, the performance left much to be desired for Greg Gard’s squad. To their credit, Wisconsin has played the ninth hardest schedule this year, but they’ll still likely need to win at least three of their final five regular season games to have a real shot at March Madness.
For Wisconsin, they are now 15-10 on the season and 7-8 in the Big Ten. They’ll return to action at home again on Saturday when they take on Rutgers (16-10) at 11 AM CT.
Michigan fell to 14-12 (8-7 Big Ten) with the loss and their tournament hopes are all but vanquished. In all likelihood, unless they can make some major noise down the stretch, the Wolverines will not be in March Madness.
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