Wisconsin basketball gave a sense of deja vu tonight. The No. 6 Badgers squandered a 19-point lead to eventually fall 80-72 in overtime to the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The road collapse in Lincoln comes nearly a year to the day after the team relinquished a 17-point second-half lead in the same building (February 11, 2023).
Wisconsin drops to 16-5 (8-2 Big Ten) with the loss, falling to 0.5 games behind Purdue for first place in the conference.
The Badgers led 43-27 at halftime, though came out of the break making just one of their first eight three-point attempts. A late flurry from Max Klesmit halted Nebraska’s momentum for a minute, but C.J. Wilcher’s 22 points on 5/7 from three and a couple of Rienk Mast threes proved to be too much. The result is the Badgers’ first loss since 2000 in which they led by 15+ at halftime.
Credit Nebraska’s hot shooting or credit the Cornhuskers’ weird magic inside their building this year (the team is now 14-1 overall and 6-0 in conference play at home). But Wisconsin also has themselves to blame for this one, as the team finished with 16 turnovers.
— No Context College Basketball (@ContextFreeCBB) February 2, 2024
Greg Gard’s team now must regroup quickly as No. 2 Purdue visits Madison on Sunday afternoon.