IOWA CITY, Iowa – When forward Tyler Wahl twisted his way into the lane to covert his fifth layup of the game, No.20 Wisconsin pushed its lead to 82-78 with 3:51 remaining in overtime.

Home or away, the Badgers feel they should be able to close out games. Not this year, especially not with how leaky their defense is.

“You should be able to put a team away,” said forward Steven Crowl, as he tried to explain another defensive meltdown in No.20 Wisconsin’s 88-86 overtime loss to Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. “That’s where we got to get better and more consistent.”

Leading by as many as 12 points in the opening half, Wisconsin (17-9, 9-6 Big Ten) allowed Iowa too many high-percentage shots, which transitioned into the Hawkeyes making a handful of tough shots and the big shots late to continue the Badgers’ February swoon, suffering their fifth loss in the last six games.

"I don't know if we've ever been where I wanted us to be defensively all year," head coach Greg Gard said. "We've been pretty efficient offensively. We just haven't taken steps consistently enough defensively ... All through the lineup, we've got to be better, so that's the challenge."

Here are my takeaways from Carver-Hawkeye Arena

Four days after Wisconsin delivered a poignant defensive effort, shutting down Ohio State’s two best offensive weapons and allowing 58 points (the lowest of the Big Ten season), the Badgers looked powerless in allowing a conference season high in scoring.

Iowa converted 52.6 percent of its shots, including 26 of 43 inside the arc (60.5 percent) and 24 of 30 (80 percent) from the line. The 30 free throws are the most UW has allowed since the season opener and showed how often UW was out of position against forward Owen Freeman (8-for-11) and guard Payton Sandfort (7-for-7).

“We’ll have spurts where we’ll get stops and be one of the best defensive teams in the country, and then we’ll have games like this where will give up 80-some points to a team,” Crowl said. “They’re good offensively, but no team should be scoring that much.”

Wisconsin’s offense carried the Badgers in the opening half, shooting 58.6 percent from the field and registering 14 assists on 17 buckets. UW got what it wanted in the paint (22 points, 8-for-11 at the rim) to generate open looks from the perimeter (6-for-10), but the Badgers’ defense didn’t provide enough resistance.

The Hawkeyes even started slow, missing nine of their first 16 shots, before going 22 minutes, 39 seconds between consecutive misses.

“Just couldn’t stop them,” guard Chucky Hepburn said. “They were getting downhill, getting whatever they wanted. Josh Dix had a really good game. We couldn’t guard him.”

That responsibility went to A.J. Storr, who finished with 21 points but couldn’t stop Dix from scoring 17 points on 8-for-11 shooting. Dix was one of four Iowa players who scored at least 17, led by freshman Owen Freeman scoring 20 points on 6-for-6 shooting and 8-for-11 from the line.

Much like UW did at Michigan and at Rutgers last week, the Badgers let the Hawkeyes get comfortable with their offense, which then allowed them to feel confident taking tougher mid-range shots that they started knocking down.

Gard said the Badgers never could get their heels dug in with how Iowa kept the Badgers’ defense off balance, causing them to not get through screens well enough and running behind shooters, not shut off driving lanes, being too soft with their on-ball pressure and on the glass.

That’s been a theme since the second game of the season, causing angst and frustration among the roster.

“I’m tired of talking about it; we just got to go out there and do it and fix it on the court,” Crowl said. “We can only sit here and talk so much about it. We’re running out of time.”

“I thought we did a great job scoring the ball. We had 80-some points. You’re going to beat most teams with that, but it’s all on the defensive end.”

Part of the reason Wisconsin failed to close out Iowa was that Wahl had to watch the final 2:46 from the bench. Picking up his fifth foul underneath the rim, Wahl saw the Badgers go 0-for-4 from the field and score only two points with him on the bench.

“Tyler did a great job playing off two feet, getting in (the paint), and being able to score, but it definitely hurt us when he fouled out of the game,” Hepburn said.

A team that has touted its depth constantly leading up to the start of the season, Wisconsin looked vulnerable in the front court without Wahl on the floor.

When Wahl picked up his third foul on UW’s first defensive possession, freshman Nolan Winter made an early check-in. Winter was a spark in the first half with six points on two possessions but committed turnovers in two of the next three possessions that fed into Iowa’s momentum.

“That’s part of us defensively being inconsistent that we get guys in foul trouble, and we foul unnecessarily at times with fouls that don’t have value,” Gard said. “There is going to be some bang-bang plays and plays at the rim, but we pick up some fouls that allow them to get to the bonus. They can see the ball go in and it builds confidence when you can shoot free throws and make them.”

When he picked up his fourth, Wahl sat in favor of Markus Ilver and saw UW’s deficit extend to nine, as Iowa scored on a second-chance dunk and went 7-for-8 at the line.

The combination of Winter, Ilver, and Carter Gilmore resulted in seven points, five fouls, two turnovers, and a combined minus-five ratio.

“All five guys got to be locked in on the court,” Hepburn said. “Players sub in and they all got to be locked in defensively. It can’t be three out of five guys on the court. It’s got to be five out of five … We got some stops right away and fell away from that. We got to get back to playing defense for a full 40 minutes.”

Wisconsin’s first half was textbook in sharing the ball. Hepburn, Storr, and Winter were given open threes thanks to teammates attacking the low post and making the extra pass. Wisconsin did a better job attacking Iowa’s press than they did last Saturday at Rutgers, leading to transition buckets.

UW successfully passed out of double teams to open players in high-percentage areas, while Klesmit passed up the opportunity to shoot a mid-range jumper with the shot clock winding down so he could fling a pass to John Blackwell in the post and have him finish through traffic.

There have been only seven games where UW had more assists (14) than they had in the first half. The Problem was the well dried up, as the Badgers started to get sped up to try and match Iowa.

UW started the second half 4 for 14 from the field, including five looks around the rim. The Badgers went from making 6 of 10 from the perimeter to missing five of six after halftime, including an open three-pointer from Hepburn on UW’s final possession of regulation and another from Klesmit on their second-to-last possession of overtime. Both shots were attempted after UW couldn’t find a better shot inside.

Most damaging was the Badgers going 19-for-28 from the free throw line, including 10-for-17 in the second half. Storr and Hepburn – two of UW’s best free throw shooters at 83.6 and 76.6 percent, respectively – went 6-for-12 from the line, including Hepburn missing a pair of technical free throws with UW trailing 74-70 with 4:39 left.

1.194 – Overall points per possession for Wisconsin, which was at 1.52 in the first half, .969 in the second half, and 1.0 in overtime.

1.239 – Overall points per possession for Iowa, which was at 1.39 in the first, 1.09 in the second, and 1.67 in overtime.

38.2 – Wisconsin’s shooting percentage in the second half and overtime (13-for-34)

50.0 - Iowa's shooting percentage in the second half and overtime (16-for-32)

49 - Making both of his free throws with 11:57 remaining in the first half, Crowl became the 49th player in Wisconsin history to reach the 1,000-point club. Wahl hit that number earlier this season, as did Klesmit from his time at Wofford.

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