Wisconsin scrapping its way to wins once again this season
MADISON - The key pieces look different from a season ago.
The formula, however, isn't all that unfamiliar for yet another Wisconsin team that wasn't highly thought of in the preseason.
A year after finishing 15-4 in games decided by six points or fewer, this year's group is excelling in that category once again. Following a five-point win over No. 13 Maryland earlier on Tuesday, the Badgers improved to 4-2 in such games.
“Proud of our guys,” head coach Greg Gard said following the win. “A Big Ten battle and you’d expect nothing less. We may make it harder on ourselves than we need to, but we’re able to do just enough to close it out.”
The Badgers, without an elite scorer like Johnny Davis or two-way standout like Brad Davison on the roster, have got it done by committee so far this season.
In its latest win, this one over previously undefeated 13th ranked Maryland, freshman Connor Essegian collapsed the defense on a drive to the middle and drew the attention of four defenders. Off the action, he found Carter Gilmore - who tallied a career-high seven points in the win - for an open three-pointer on the right wing. Gilmore's three put UW up 45-43 with 10:25 to go, and the Badgers wouldn't trail for the final 10:25.
A minute later, an off-ball foul allowed Maryland tie things up with a pair of free throws. UW promptly responded with a 13-2 run made up a pair of triples from Essegian, a three from Chucky Hepburn and free throws from Gilmore and Steven Crowl.
"I think that’s being solid and playing D and competing," Crowl said. "That’s three of the bigger things that coach always harps on us, so just doing those things has led to good things for us."
It wasn't a perfect end-of-game sequence for Wisconsin. In all, UW finished 17 of 27 from the free throw line with four of the 10 misses coming in the final three minutes. But in what has always been the identity in Madison, the defensive end stabilized things for Wisconsin.
On a trio of occasions where the Terrapins closed the gap to five, Wisconsin followed up the next Maryland possession with a stop. Big-time shot making doesn't hurt, either. Threes from Essegian and Hepburn would help push the margin back up to six and nine.
"It’s just that grit and want to win," Essegian, who's averaging 12.3 points per game in the last six games, said. "We always want to make sure that we want it more than the other team, so just little plays like that that just happen naturally with us wanting to get it done."
After the team's win over Marquette, Klesmit, who delivered the go-ahead bucket, joked that the team was just "keeping it fun." The rest of the season appears to be shaking out to be a ton of fun with the past six contests decided by no less than five points.
Luckily for Wisconsin, the team has a knack for closing out games. Going back to the start of last season, Greg Gard's bunch is 19-6 in two-possession games.
"Today I just turned 52, if they keep this up, I’ll hit 62 really, really fast," Gard said after the win over the Golden Eagles. "I’ll skip 10 years. It’s a competitive group.
"They’re all learning experiences. You always want to have those two-, three-possession games go your way, but you can learn a lot as you go through them and what impacts them. It’s not only the two- or three-possession, it’s the 40, 50, 60 that lead into that."
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