Badgers showed toughness at Penn State
MADISON – Greg Gard’s players had slogged through a pair of three-game losing streaks.
They had won just twice in a span of nine games, a brutal mark spread over 30 days.
Wisconsin isn’t as deep as the staff had hoped and injuries to senior Tyler Wahl and junior Max Klesmit combined to derail a team that was 3-0 in the Big Ten and 11-2 overall after a three-point victory over Minnesota on Jan. 3.
Yet Gard and his assistants have insisted whenever asked that the mood in the locker room wasn’t dour and the players’ confidence wasn’t shaken.
UW’s 79-74 overtime victory Wednesday at Penn State affirmed that belief.
“What it says to me is that this group mentally hasn’t given in to all the other stuff,” Gard said after UW outplayed Penn State in the overtime. “Going through a losing streak and not playing as well as we can at times. They wanted to continue to find a way to fight through it.
“It is a great testament to their togetherness, to their mental toughness. Because when things are going well, it is easy to cruise along. When you get in some rough patches you’ve got to find a way to fight through it. This group as we have come through some of this, they’ve stayed right with it.”
UW (14-9, 6-7 Big Ten) has a chance to climb back to .500 in league play with a victory over host Nebraska (11-14, 4-10) at 3 p.m. Saturday on BTN.
The Badgers moved back to within a game of the .500 mark despite blowing a seven-point lead in regulation at Penn State and then, after retaking the lead, surrendering a tying three-pointer by Seth Lundy with 23.1 seconds left.
“The microcosm is what we saw in overtime,” Gard said of his team’s toughness. “To not give in and melt. To continue to battle back and win the next five minutes.”
UW, which had failed to execute late in three- and two-point losses to Northwestern, flipped the script in the overtime against Penn State.
Connor Essegian hit a three-pointer to give UW a 72-68 lead with 3:51 left.
Wahl drove baseline and found Steven Crowl for a lay-in and a 74-70 lead with 1:29 left.
Klesmit scored on a tough drive with 45.9 seconds left for a 76-72 lead.
Chucky Hepburn, whose penetration was a factor in the baskets by Crowl and Klesmit, hit two free throws to give UW a 79-72 lead with 11 seconds left.
“It feels really good because we’ve been in a lot of close games,” Crowl said, “and like coach said, our margin for error is thin as a sheet of paper.
“So, it feels good to finally do some of those small things we’ve talked about. Getting those rebounds, diving on the floor.”
Wahl was the catalyst with his best game since suffering a severe ankle injury and perhaps his best all-around game of the season.
Wahl, who missed three games in January, was aggressive from start to finish and his stat line – 16 points, eight assists, six rebounds, two blocks and a steal – was impressive.
“That is Tyler,” Gard said. “What we’ve seen is that he (was) really tentative when he came back and I think that has affected his approach mentally.
“We’ve tried to help him through it. We can help him, but he still has to go out there and do it and get the results.
“That is the best step forward for him. Nobody I am happier for than Tyler, because he needed it. He had been battling like crazy and it bothers him that he can’t perform like he wants to perform or is capable of performing.
“He wants to be able to help this team win.”
UW improved to 9-5 this season in games decided by six points or fewer. The two losses to Northwestern remain costly but the sight of Wahl returning to form and finding a way to win in overtime against a Penn State team that had been 11-1 in the Bryce Jordan Center left UW’s players encouraged as they prepared to leave for Nebraska.
“When Tyler is playing like that we’re a hard team to guard,” Hepburn said. “We’ve got to do a better job finding him when he is feeling it. We definitely will get better at that.
“With Tyler playing as well as he did and knowing Penn State is really good at home, that just gives us a little more momentum going into Nebraska.”