EVANSTON, Ill. – As efficient as the University of Wisconsin had been with its offense, looking up at the scoreboard and seeing a nine-point deficit in the second half has spelled trouble.

Only once in five instances had the Badgers overcome a three-possession deficit in the second half to win, a victory which happened in a hotel ballroom back in November. This one felt a little different

Down 44-35 with 14:40 remaining and struggling to get its offense in gear, No.17 Wisconsin finally started knocking down some shots – getting production from some familiar sources and some unexpected lifts from others.

Senior John Tonje was terrific from start to finish with a game-high 27 points, Max Klesmit was critical to jump-starting the offense out of the locker room, and Carter Gilmore looked like an All-American in a career performance to lift No.17 Wisconsin to a 75-69 victory at Northwestern.

“On the road, it’s difficult to win in any atmosphere in the Big Ten,” said Klesmit. “It really showed how we came together in the locker room at halftime as a team.”

Here are my takeaways from Welsh-Ryan Arena.

His nickname is “Gilly James” or “Lebron Gilmore” depending on what version of Gilmore shows at Wisconsin basketball practices.

“He’s had some days in practice where it’s like Oh. My. God. What are you doing?” head coach Greg Gard said. “He gets in that mode sometimes.”

Welsh-Ryan Arena had to feel like the Nicholas Johnson Pavilion to Gilmore, who was all smiles and the toast of the locker room after he delivered a career-high 15 points in the second half.

He was confident from the perimeter with a career-high three perimeter makes, crashed the boards, was active around the rim, and got himself to the foul line, all impact plays that were difference makers in staving off an upset.

“It was everything and then some,” said Klesmit, Gilmore’s roommate. “He came back for a fifth year. His opportunities before in years previous have been a little limited, but it never changed his work ethic, how he went about things … Seeing him have one of those games where you break through the ceiling, it was awesome.”

Gilmore was only 3-for-12 from three-point range last season but admitted to being encouraged by Wisconsin’s new perimeter-driven approach. Everyone had the green light to shoot the ball if open from beyond the arc, and so he spent the offseason on catch-and-shoot three-point shots.

“The biggest thing I tried to work on this offseason was coming on the floor and being more of a threat offensively,” Gilmore said. “My coaches and teammates have been encouraging me to shoot it, giving me all the confidence in the world to go out there and shoot it. They found me in the right spots. Once I saw that first one go in, I knew I felt pretty good.”

That first three-pointer at 12:41 brought Wisconsin to within 46-41. The three-pointer on the next trip down the floor brought Wisconsin's bench off their feet, but his athletic play at the rim was what really ignited things.

Tonje couldn’t convert a long pass from Klesmit at the rim, as he was flanked by two defenders, but Gilmore had followed the play, leapt for the rebound, and finished the possession. That was the start of a 17-6 run, a streak that included five more points from him to put the Badgers up 69-58 with 4:50 left.

After never reaching double figures in 120 career college games, Gilmore accomplished that mark in just over three minutes.

“It just showed off his relentless,” Klesmit said. “He knows what it takes to win and how he impacts that.”

Gard had a hunch that Gilmore was going to be an important part of the game plan. Even with Brooks Barnhizer (ankle) and his 17.1 points per game out for the remainder of the season, Gard was predicting inspired basketball and that meant a lot of Nick Martinelli.

Martinelli’s presence, a team-best 19.6 points per game average and 6-7 frame was going to make it hard for a 7-footer to stay on him the entire game, which meant Gilmore would draw some minutes on him. Knowing Martinelli tended to favor his left hand, Gilmore was part of an effort to limit him to 15 points on 18 shots.

“First and foremost, my main goal every day is to do my job on the defensive end,” Gilmore said. “I know that’s where I hang my hat and something I can control is the energy I put into the defensive end. After that, my role on the offensive end has grown as well. My role is a little bit of everything. That’s the kind of player I am.”

Wisconsin only being down six at halftime should have been considered a minor miracle considering how disfunctional its offense looked.

Calling the Badgers’ offense awful might be too harsh unless you remove Tonje from the equation. The senior was Wisconsin’s only saving grace in the lowest-scoring half the Badgers had all season (25).

Tonje scored 16 consecutive points for Wisconsin from the 7:25 mark to 3:49. Outside that stretch, offense was hard to come by. Players not named Tonje scored nine points on 3-for-18 shooting. Five of those points came from point guard John Blackwell, who had to sit for a long stretch of the first half with foul trouble for the second straight game.

Sitting the final 9:06 of the first half Wednesday at Maryland, Blackwell saw the offense score only 13 points with him on the bench. UW was marginally better on Saturday because of Tonje.

Gard thought Wisconsin was too tentative in the first half, which could explain the nine turnovers, the dropped passes, and the forced shots.

“We needed to just chill out and relax,” Gard said.

Blackwell never got going (5 points, 2-for-8) but others did. It started with Klesmit (11 pts, four rebounds) coming out of the locker room and hitting a turnaround jumper in the paint and a three-pointer to start building momentum. Nolan Winter had five of his 10 points in 86 seconds after Klesmit’s stretch, which set the stage for Gilmore’s run.

Wisconsin also needed players outside of Tonje to start attacking the rim. After drawing only six fouls in the first half, the Badgers reached the bonus for the final 9:48 and went 14-for-16 from the line after halftime.

UW started getting the ball into the post, saw its guards play off two feet and playmake for others, and limited the turnovers to one in 29 second-half possessions. As a result, the shots started falling like the Badgers had been accustomed to for most of the year.

“We knew it was coming,” Klesmit said. “We knew what we had in the locker room is a really good thing. We got a lot of good guys that believe in themselves and believe in each other.”

Tonje admits that he’s at his best when he’s attacking, making plays off the dribble, drawing fouls to get to the line, or setting up defenders for a spot-up perimeter spot. It’s channeled aggression, coyly admitting that he’s always in attack mode but likes to be selective in his opportunities to make the right play.

Once the first shot went in, Tonje rolled. His three-pointer with 7:25 remaining gave him his first bucket on five attempts. He made his next four shots, shooting off the dribble, in rhythm, and even a step-back contested three-pointer, so impressive that he stuck his finger to his lips to silence the students on his case.

He wasn’t nearly as flashy in the second half (3-for-8), but he registered three assists (two to Gilmore) and went 4-for-4 from the line.

Since getting a pep talk from assistant coach Kirk Penney following his scoreless outing at USC, Tonje has hit 20 points and made at least five three-pointers in four consecutive games. He is the first Badger with four consecutive games of at least five three-pointers since at least 2004-05 and the only player in the Big Ten to do so this season.

“He’s helped us out a lot this year,” Klesmit said of Tonje, who is shooting 41.5 percent (49-for-118) from 3-point range on the season, including 45.6 percent (31-68) in Big Ten play. “Talk about a guy who has just put everything into it. Super grateful that I have John Tonje in my life.”

.833 – Wisconsin’s points per possession in the opening half, scoring on just 10 of 30 possessions and turning the ball over 30 percent of the time. The Badgers were at .368 points on their first 19 possessions.

1.724 – Wisconsin’s points per possession in the second half, scoring on 21 of 29 possessions with only one turnover.

12 - UW shot 13-for-32 from 3-point range, the 12th time the Badgers have hit double-digit triples (9-3 in such games), matching the highest single-season total in school history.

1-48 - Wisconsin held Northwestern to 69 points. The Wildcats have reached 70 points just once in its last 49 meetings with the Badgers

85.7 - The Badgers converted 18-of-21 free- throw attempts. The Badgers are now 17-2 this season when making at least 75 percent of their free throws.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @_Perko_, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook