No. 10 Badgers beat Wildcats

MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said his team was better defensively in the second half. That was a bit of an understatement.

Tyler Wahl paced a balanced attack with a career-high 14 points and the 10th-ranked Badgers pulled away in the second half for a 68-52 victory over Northwestern on Wednesday night.

Wisconsin allowed just 18 second-half points in holding the Wildcats to their lowest point total of the season.

“I thought we did a better job of stopping the ball and not letting them get in the paint,” Gard said. “I thought the first half, we didn’t execute well enough in some of the ball-screen situations. Second half, we were better. We talked about some of those things at halftime. The second 20, I thought we were more aggressive in the ball screens and eliminated some of that dribble penetration.”

The Badgers gained control with a 12-0 run midway through the second half. Micah Potter’s 3-pointer put Wisconsin up 56-39.

Northwestern went scoreless for almost six minutes until Chase Audige’s 3-pointer made it 5642 with 10:26 left.

D’Mitrik Trice added 12 points, Brad Davison 11 and Potter 10 for Wisconsin (12-3, 6-2 Big Ten).

Audige had 16 points and Miller Kopp 10 for Northwestern (6-7, 3-6), which has lost six straight.

Wahl opened the second half with a three-point play to put Wisconsin up 44-34, but the Badgers missed their next nine shots before Wahl hit a 3-pointer from the top to make it 47-39.

“I feel very comfortable,” Wahl said. “I feel confident. It’s kind of like my second season running through the offense, knowing the plays and having that connection with my teammates. So, yeah, I feel very comfortable and confident in our offense this year.”

The Wildcats failed to capitalize during that stretch, missing four shots and committing three turnovers.

Northwestern, which scored 18 points in the paint in the first half, managed just four after the break. The Wildcats shot just 6 of 22 in the second half.

UP NEXT

Northwestern is at Penn State on Saturday.

Wisconsin hosts No. 15 Ohio State on Saturday.