It certainly wasn’t easy on the eyes
Mistakes lead to Badgers’ demise
This is the type of loss that can cost a team a legitimate chance to win a Big Ten championship.
Wisconsin played porous defense after halftime, missed too many open three-pointers from start to finish, turned the ball over too frequently and too many times took ill-advised shots early in the possession that allowed Penn State to get out and run.
The result: Penn State snapped a 13game losing streak to UW with an 81-71 victory Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania.
“I'll watch the film, but the defensive end was my main concern,” UW coach Greg Gard said. “How we were not able to keep the ball out of the paint. Obviously, their guards are good at getting it there, but we made too many mistakes, both halves. I thought we gave them a lot of confidence and they took advantage of our mistakes.”
As a result, UW (13-5, 7-4 Big Ten) missed another chance to move up in the conference standings. This loss cost the Badgers sole possession of second place and left them tied for fourth with Ohio State (13-4, 7-4).
Michigan (13-1, 8-1), which is on pause because of COVID-19, remains alone in first place. Illinois (11-5, 7-3) is alone in second, followed by Iowa (12-4, 6-3).
Penn State (6-7, 3-6) shot just 37.5% in the first half but hit 9 of its first 15 shots after halftime to overcome a three-point deficit and finished the half
15 of 28 (53.6%).
The Nittany Lions stayed close in the opening half by hitting 6 of 17 three-pointers and closed the game out by hitting 14 of 17 free throws in the final 2 minutes 12 seconds. They defeated UW for the first time since the 2011 Big Ten tournament.
“They got a lot of buckets at the rim and threes and that is asking for trouble,” UW sophomore Tyler Wahl said. “Giving up points in the paint and semi-contested to wide-open threes killed us tonight.”
The Badgers hit just 7 of 28 threepointers (25.0%) and turned the ball over 12 times, matching their season high. The Nittany Lions turned those miscues into 15 points, including 11 in the second half.
Penn State was credited with 21 fastbreak points and scored more points overall against UW than any other team this season.
“They really like to get out and run,” Wahl said, “and we didn't do too good of a job stopping them in transition.”
The Nittany Lions entered the day with four players averaging at least 10.3 points per game – guard Myreon Jones at 15.4, guard Izaiah Brockington at 15.0, forward Seth Lundy at 13.8 and guard Sam Sessoms at 10.3.
Jones and Brockington scored 20 and 18 points, respectively. They combined to hit 16 of 27 shots and grab 14 rebounds.
UW did a terrific job early on senior forward John Harrar, who in the previous six games had 31 offensive rebounds and 61 rebounds overall. But Harrar contributed 14 of his 17 points and all eight of his rebounds in the second half.
Three other players scored at least seven points, led by guard Jamari Wheeler with nine points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals.
“I just think the way we play, and when these guys are locked in and these guys share the ball like this, we're a hard team to defend,” interim coach Jim Ferry said.
UW got 18 points from Nate Reuvers, 15 from Aleem Ford and 13 from Wahl (all in the first half ).
Guards Brad Davison (3 of 11 shots, eight points), D'Mitrik Trice (2 of 19 shots, six points) and Micah Potter (3 of 7 shots, six points) combined for just 20 points on 8-for-27 shooting.
Potter, who had 24 points and 13 rebounds in UW's 58-49 victory over Penn State last season, sat out the final 9:24 of the first half after picking up his second foul.
In addition to shooting poorly from three-point range, UW got to the free throw line just eight times. The low number was the result, in part, of UW settling at times for quick shots in transition.
“You have to pull it out if you don't have an advantage,” Gard said. “To race it down and throw it into the cardboard cutouts is not to our advantage.
“We work too hard defensively to get the ball back to not make them play defense if we didn't have and advantage.”
UW's players have little time to pout as they host the Nittany Lions on Tuesday.
“It's a great thing,” Reuvers said. “Coach said we failed a test today but you get a retake. You get to redo it, change your grade in the grade book.”