Badgers survive scare after long layoff
MADISON - It wasn't always pretty, but the Wisconsin men's basketball team got back to business as usual Wednesday night.
Idle for two weeks, the Badgers returned to the Kohl Center and survived a late scare for an 89-85 victory over Illinois State.
Steven Crowl's 21 points led a balanced scoring effort for UW (10-2, 1-1 Big Ten) against the Redbirds (8-6). It was the final nonconference game for the Badgers, who are ranked No. 23 in the Ferris Mowers coaches poll and 24th by The Associated Press.
Johnny Davis added 20 points and Tyler Wahl 18 for UW.
The Badgers were playing for the first time since a 71-68 victory over Nicholls on Dec. 15.
UW had to cancel its Dec. 23 game against George Mason because of positive COVID-19 tests in the Badgers' program. The Badgers were without five players against Illinois State: Lorne Bowman II, Ben Carlson, Carter Higginbottom, Jahcobi Neath and Justin Taphorn.
According to the Big Ten, teams need at least seven scholarship players and one coach to play.
With UW down to 10 scholarship players, freshman forwards Chris Hodges and Matthew Mors were in uniform and warming up for the first time this season after deciding to redshirt. Neither appeared in the game, so the redshirts are still intact.
The Badgers had a turnover on their first possession and then missed two easy looks at the basket before Crowl tapped in a rebound.
After that, UW was in rhythm. The Badgers took a 10-2 lead, with Crowl scoring six of those points, before Illinois State called a timeout at the 16:45 mark.
Redbirds coach Dan Muller had to burn another timeout about three minutes later after Davis stole the ball and threw down an open-court dunk for a 19-4 advantage.
UW pushed the lead to 29-9, but Illinois State hit back with an 11-0 run that included 3 three-pointers. The Badgers answered when Davis found center Chris Vogt with a nice pass for a dunk.
The Redbirds got within 36-31 after a follow-up dunk from Sy Chatman.
Crowl's three-pointer with 36 seconds left in the half gave UW a 46-36 lead at the break. Crowl had 12 points in the opening 20 minutes after scoring just 10 over the Badgers' previous three games.
After not playing against Nicholls with a non-COVID illness, Davis had 15 points in the first half against Illinois State. Davis has scored at least 15 points in every game he has played this season. He also missed UW's loss to Providence on Nov. 15 with a heel injury.
Davis came into the game averaging 20.9 points per game. He and fifth-year guard Brad Davison (15.2) have been carrying UW's scoring load this season. Davison missed all five of his shots and didn't score in the first half, but Crowl and Hepburn (10 points) stepped up their contributions.
Davison opened the scoring for the Badgers in the second half by draining a three-pointer after an offensive rebound by Davis.
A jumper from Davis gave UW a 57-39 lead. Illinois State was staggered but mustered a 7-0 run before Hepburn drained a three-pointer.
Isaac Lindsey, who joined the Badgers as a preferred walk-on after one season at UNLV, hit a triple on UW's next possession. The Mineral Point High School product was scoreless in six minutes over the first 11 games.
The Redbirds still wouldn't go away and cut UW's lead to 65-59 on a threepointer by Josiah Strong. Illinois State got within 70-67 on a driving layup from Kendall Lewis and then 71-70 on a threepointer from Antonio Reeves.
UW went up, 78-74, but Illinois State whittled the lead to 81-80.
Davison hit two free throws and Wahl drew a charge with a just over a minute remaining. Wahl then added two free throws of his own to give UW an 85-80 lead.
Wahl added two more free throws with 25 seconds left. Strong sank a three-pointer and then Davison was trapped in the corner on the inbound pass and had to call a timeout with UW clinging to an 87-85 lead with 7.3 seconds remaining.
Davison was fouled on the next inbound pass and hit two free throws to seal the victory.