For as much as Greg Gard follows the analytics, Wisconsin’s head coach knew that Rutgers ranking near the bottom of the league in defense was about as misleading as it gets.

“As it always is when you come in here, and try to come out on the left-hand side, it’s going to be a rock right at times,” Gard said.

Far from an offensive masterpiece like the one Wisconsin delivered three nights earlier, the Badgers survived Jersey Mike’s Arena with a 75-63 victory over the Scarlet Knights because they got huge performances from three big foundational pieces.

Sophomore guard John Blackwell was sloppy with the ball (five turnovers) but got the offense going with 13 of his game-high 21 points in the first half. Senior John Tonje took the torch at halftime and scored 13 of his 15 in the second half, while senior Steven Crowl was consistently solid in both halves to get the Badgers (12-3, 2-2 Big Ten) back to even in the conference standings.

Here are my takeaways from Wisconsin’s first road victory in 50 weeks.

It felt like Wisconsin was in control for most of the night, but the momentum had been building throughout the second half as Rutgers took advantage of some Wisconsin sloppiness to keep chipping things away. The building got loud after Jamichael Davis’ layup with 7:50 remaining cut Wisconsin’s 16-point lead to three. It stayed that way when Jeremiah Williams answered Crowl’s second-chance point with a pull-up jumper.

Wisconsin locked in defensively after that with stops on four consecutive possessions and offense to supplement it.

UW clogged the lane in a modified 2-3 zone, forcing Ace Bailey to take a tough fadeaway jumper near the baseline. Instead of cutting the lead to one, Tonje hit a step-back three-pointer on the ensuing possession.

“He took better shots for the most part (in the second half), was more aggressive,” Gard said of Tonje. “I like the fact that he was aggressive. We put him in situations a few times where we put the ball in his hands intentionally and let him go to work. A mature player that delivered when we needed him to."

Williams worked off a screen against Blackwell to take a jump step into the lane, but his shot attempt was wide right with Crowl well defending and extending in the low post.

Down 63-57, Bailey drove baseline but got his shot caught between Crowl and the backboard. The long rebound deflected to Tyson Acuff, who missed a long three as he tried to beat the shot clock.

Crowl delivered one of the offensive plays of the game on the next trip down the floor, scoring on a putback dunk when Kamari McGee’s layup rolled off the rim to push the lead back to eight.

Crowl had 18 points and 10 rebounds, shooting 8-for-11 against Rutgers, his best shooting performance (min. 10 FGA) since his career-high 36 points game (12-for-16) against Bradley. After getting publicly and privately called on his coaches and teammates following UW’s loss at Illinois, Crowl is averaging 16.3 points on Wisconsin's four-game win streak.

“I’ve always been a big fan of his,” Gard said of Crowl. “I’ve seen him every day for four-and-a-half years … Steve is best when he is aggressive. He knows an aggressive Steve is the best Steve. He was big for us, especially down the stretch.”

Williams tried to answer by driving to the low left block, but his layup wasn’t close after he met resistance from Tonje, who stayed in lockstep with him, and McGee.

Rutgers scored on the next offensive possession, but the Scarlet Knights missed their next seven shots as UW pulled away with an 8-0 run.

UW gave up 18 offensive rebounds, committed 16 turnovers, only attempted six free throws, and went 7-for-22 on the perimeter, but locking in defensively to hold Rutgers to 30 percent shooting in the second half made the difference.

“I thought we showed some grittiness, some toughness when things didn’t flow as smoothly as they can for us offensively,” Gard said. “We had different guys step up and make plays.”

Rutgers freshmen Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey are the Scarlet Knights’ dynamic tandem.

Harper at the school’s first triple-double in over 40 years last month, but the freshman hasn’t been the same since catching the flu. Missing Thursday’s loss at Indiana, Harper started but was clear early on that he was not the dynamic guard who leads the team in scoring and assists.

Limited to 15 minutes, including just four in the second half, Harper was held scoreless on two shots against Blackwell.

Bailey shined without Harper at Indiana, scoring a career-high 39 points on 16-of-29 shooting to lead Rutgers. He also grabbed eight rebounds, made four of the Scarlet Knights’ six 3-pointers, and blocked four shots. Wisconsin made Bailey feel ill in a different way.

Senior Max Klesmit guarded Harper at the start but Wisconsin rotated Blackwell and Jack Janicki on him and Gard said UW had options to go bigger defensively against him. The results show Bailey’s lack of comfort in a season-low nine points on 3-for-16 shooting.

After his jumper at the 14:53 mark, Bailey missed his last six shots before fouling out on a double technical with 1:46 remaining. He also missed three free throws in the second half.

For a team that was having issues defensively only a few games ago, having UW parlay its performance against Iowa guard Payton Sandfort (1-for-9) into Bailey is a sign of growth.

“I thought we did a really good job on both of them,” Gard said. “Other than the three we gave Bailey at the start of the second half … that was the only one I felt we allowed him to comfortably take.”

Averaging 15.8 assists per game, its most since 1993-94, Wisconsin came close to hitting that total with its 15 assists on 31 baskets. It was a clinic in ball movement early on.

Blackwell bounced a pass through two defenders to Nolan Winter on the break for a dunk to make the score 8-2. Blackwell delivered a bounce pass to Tonje, too, on the break and watched as UW’s senior used his body to box out Harper as he finished his layup off the glass.

Xavier Amos had post buckets on consecutive first-half possessions that were set up by his teammates, first Tonje getting him a layup and then Klesmit curling a pass around a pair of defenders to an open Amos for a slam

Throw in McGee’s steal and the underhand toss to Blackwell for an uncontested layup off the glass and it was a clinic being put on by UW, which scored 20 of its first 24 points at the rim.

UW tapped into its depth late when Klesmit had to leave the game with a right ankle injury and Winter unable to play the final 7:37 due to a cut on his hand. Going with seniors McGee and Carter Gilmore down the stretch, the Badgers closed the game on a 17-8 run.

1 - UW has the most Big Ten wins and best win pct. at 278-140 (.665) since 2001-02.

2 - Tonje posted a pair of blocks in the first half. Tonje had not registered a blocked shot since Nov. 10, 2023, at Missouri.

34.2 - Wisconsin held Rutgers to 34.2 percent (25-for-73) from the field, marking the lowest opponent shooting percentage since holding Iowa to 32.3% (20-for-62) on Feb. 22, 2023. Wisconsin has not lost when holding opponents under 40.0 percent since a 68-69 OT loss to Kansas on Nov. 24, 2022.

40.9 - The Badgers protected the rim, limiting Rutgers to 9-for-22 on layups.

50.0 - Wisconsin shot 54.4 percent from the field (31-for-57). After shooting 64.5 percent in last

Friday's win over Iowa, UW has now shot over 50 percent in back-to-back Big Ten games

for the first time since Jan. 2 and Jan. 6, 2024, versus Iowa and Nebraska. UW hasn’t lost its last 32 games shooting at least 50 percent.

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