It had the feel of it simply not being the University of Wisconsin’s day. With an offense sputtering, shots at the rim not falling, and falling behind by 15 points against reigning national champions, a young Badgers squad could have easily packed it.
Fighting back to tie the game three separate times in the second half, Wisconsin showed plenty of fight until Kansas’s Bobby Pettiford scored off an offensive rebound as time expired to lift the third-ranked Jayhawks to a 69-68 overtime victory in the Battle 4 Atlantis semifinals in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Senior Tyler Wahl scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half and overtime for the Badgers (4-1), which will face USC in Friday’s third-place game (12 p.m. CT/ESPN). The Trojans lost, 73-66, to No.22 Tennessee in overtime.
After shooting 30.8 percent in the first half to dig a hefty deficit, the Badgers started to find instant offense with freshman Connor Essegian and junior guard Max Klesmit. Essegian scored 11 of his career-high 17 points with Klesmit scoring five of his 13 on a 22-7 run that even the score at 48.
After Kansas (6-0) ripped off a 10-0 run to erase a brief Wisconsin lead, the Badgers made a final surge with Wahl. Quiet for more of the tournament, Wahl scored the game’s next nine points to give the Badgers a 61-60 lead with 49.4 remaining.
UW could have clinched the win in regulation, but the Badgers failed to secure an offensive rebound on Kansas’s last regulation possession – leading to a Kevin McCullar (18 points) three-pointer – and Chucky Hepburn airballed a perimeter shot.
After starting overtime with four empty possessions, Wahl cleaned up his own miss for a three-point play to give Wisconsin a 66-65 lead with 1:35 remaining. He lifted Wisconsin again with a low-post bucket with 21 seconds remaining, giving the visitors back the one-point lead.
UW narrowly pulled the upset when it forced a missed three-pointer from Zach Clemence, but Wahl could not corral the rebound, and the bounce when right to Pettiford, who finished off the glass as time expired.
Wisconsin had frustrated Kansas’s offense in the same way it had done to its previous four opponents. The problem was the reigning national champions has more firepower. Starting 2-for-16 from the floor, the Jayhawks hit 7 of 9 shots to turn a 6-6 game into a lead as big as 11. The three-pointers were a big weapon with Kansas hitting four on the stretch.
Getting a game-high 29 points and 14 rebounds from Jalen Wilson, the Jayhawks shot 41.7 percent in the second half, but the Badgers held them to 3-for-9 from the perimeter and forced nine turnovers to mount their comeback.
What it means: Wisconsin failed to get to the championship of the Battle 4 Atlantis for the first time in three tournament appearances. Not a huge shock considering the caliber of opponent, and while the deficiencies the Badgers were able to cover up in their first four games were exposed by the reigning national champions, the amount of fight and grit the underdogs showed is a good sign moving forward.
Star of the game: Wahl was 3-for-19 over his last two games and just 2-for-7 in the first half, but the senior was 4-for-7 from the floor in the second half and scored all five of Wisconsin’s points in overtime.
Stat of the game: Wisconsin entered the game first nationally in three-point percentage defense at 12.5 percent (9-for-72). Kansas finished 9-for-29 from the perimeter.
Reason to be Concerned: Hepburn continues to struggle with his shot and it’s starting to hurt UW’s offense. The sophomore point guard started to show some signs of life, including starting the second half with a layup for his first make around the rim this season (on 10 attempts), but he badly missed what would have been the winning three-pointer and made a handful of negative plays in overtime.
Don’t overlook: Essegian is becoming a bigger factor and threat for the Badgers, who simply aren’t getting consistent offense from Jordan Davis or Hepburn to this point.
What’s next: USC has claimed two of the three all-time meetings with Wisconsin, with the Trojans most recently earning an 86-76 home win in Los Angeles back in 1982. The all-time series dates to 1946, when the Badgers earned a 61-56 win over USC. The two schools will be seeing plenty of each other starting in 2024 when the Trojans join the Big Ten.
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