The No. 19 Wisconsin Badgers made up for last month's loss to Minnesota by grinding out a 56-51 win at Williams Arena in Minneapolis on Wednesday night. BadgerBlitz.com's Stat Pack from the game is included below, breaking down how the Badgers pulled out another Big Ten road win.
-- This was a textbook case of a grinding Big Ten game. The Badgers led from start to finish, but never got much of a chance to really pull away and squeeze the Gophers out until D'Mitrik Trice hit a clutch 3-pointer with 1:44 left to play. That gave the Badgers a two-possession lead (six points), and the Gophers couldn't muster up a response until Jordan Murphy hit a free throw about a minute and a half later. The Badgers made all four of their final free throws to put the game on ice.
-- Wisconsin's defense rose to the occasion once again. The Badgers held Minnesota to a season-low 51 points at the Barn, where they've had a lot of success this season. Wisconsin allowed Minnesota to shoot just 35 percent from the field (20 of 57), and allowed the Gophers to make just one of their 13 shots from the 3-point line. That lock down defense on the perimeter was a big part of why the Badgers were able to keep Minnesota from coming all the way back, even when it seemed like the Gophers had the momentum.
-- A strong defensive effort was necessary in part because the Gophers played some strong defense of their own - for a time. The Badgers finished the game shooting just 35 percent from the field as well, but they shot 43.5 precent in the second half to Minnesota's 32.3 percent. Minnesota's Daniel Oturu gave Ethan Happ a lot of trouble in the paint for a good chunk of the game, holding the senior to just four points in the first half. But Happ was able to turn it on in the second half and made four of his five attempts after the break to score 11 points after halftime.
-- The Badgers didn't dominate at the free throw line, but they got there often enough to make up for some early offensive miscues. The officials didn't call many fouls at all in the first half - the Badgers went the entire first half without fouling - but the whistles started to blow after halftime, and both teams got in to the double bonus by the end of the game. The Badgers made 12 of 18 shots from the line to Minnesota's 10 of 13 - good enough to get the job done when they needed to even things up.
-- The Gophers out-rebounded the Badgers 45-35, but it felt as though the Badgers got most of the crucial ones. Wisconsin grabbed several long offensive rebounds that set them up to grab some second-chance points. Minnesota's Jordan Murphy finished the game with 19 total rebounds.
-- The Badgers had two Minnesota natives making their first appearance at the Barn since joining the UW roster in Brad Davison and Nate Reuvers, and they both made some key contributions to the Wisconsin win. Davison looked at ease right from the get-go when he hit a 3-pointer to open up the scoring for the night, but Reuvers took a little more time to get in to the flow. The Lakeville, Minn., native finished the game with nine points, eight rebounds and seven blocks.
-- D'Mitrik Trice had a strong night for the Badgers, capped off with his crucial 3-pointer that put the Gophers in a hole they couldn't climb out of. He was 3-for-10 from the floor but didn't turn the ball over at all - helping the Badgers go the entire game with just six turnovers as a team.
-- Junior guard Brevin Pritzl was the only UW player to chip in some points off of the bench, and his seven points seemed to come at crucial times for UW, including his 3-pointer and two final free throws that sealed up the win for the Badgers. His 21 minutes proved to be pretty valuable for UW on Wednesday.
-- Khalil Iverson chipped in six points and was 3-for-3 from the field. He gave the Badgers an extra option to work with in the paint - Minnesota had a 30-24 edge in overall points in the paint.
-- The Badgers have now won six games in a row, including three of what looked like a crucial five-game stretch for them as they tried to remain in the hunt for a Big Ten championship. They'll take on two of the Big Ten's best over the next week, traveling to Ann Arbor for a rematch with Michigan on Saturday before returning home for their lone game against Michigan State next Tuesday. Win one or both of those games and the Badgers will be in business.
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.
