Surging Badgers beat slumping Hoosiers
January 27, 2012
MADISON, Wis. (AP)—Wisconsin had already bounced back from its rough startin the Big Ten. Now Jordan Taylor and the 25th-ranked Badgers know they can wineven on a bad shooting night.
Despite going 4 for 17 from 3-point range, Wisconsin fell back on itsdefense to beat No. 16 Indiana 57-50 on Thursday.
Ben Brust scored 13 points and Ryan Evans added 12 for the Badgers (17-5,6-3), who have won their past five games—including road victories at Purdueand Illinois.
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“We just had to keep believing that we have a good team,” forward JaredBerggren said. “We really believe that. Despite the struggles at the start ofthe Big Ten, we knew what we had here. We knew we had guys that weren’t going togive up easy.”
Now, Berggren said, the Badgers believe they are back in the Big Ten titlerace.
“I just like the grit in this group,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said.
Verdell Jones and Christian Watford scored 12 points each for the Hoosiers(16-5, 4-5), who have lost four of their past five games. The Hoosiers snapped athree-game losing streak with a victory at Penn State on Sunday.
The Badgers have won nine straight over Indiana.
“They play at a snail’s pace, and you’ve got to steal possessions againstthem,” Hoosiers coach Tom Crean said. “We struggled getting those balls.”
Berggren had a career-high five blocks, leading the way in a strongdefensive effort against Indiana standout freshman forward Cody Zeller.
“Jared did a great job on Zeller,” Taylor said. “He’s obviously one ofthe best players in the country, and what Jared was able to do was impressive.”
Zeller scored seven points on 2-for-7 shooting.
“I had to limit his touches, and just try to battle with him,” Berggrensaid. “Just try to make everything difficult for him and I was able to come upwith a couple blocks.”
Jones didn’t score in the second half.
Mike Bruesewitz and Taylor had 10 points each for the Badgers. Taylor shot 5for 14 from the field.
“Obviously I didn’t shoot the ball that great,” Taylor said. “I’m not tooworried about that. Like I said, any time you cannot shoot the ball well and goout and get a win against a really good team is always fun, especially a teamlike that, that has so many scorers, to hold them to 50 points. That’s prettyimpressive.”
With Wisconsin leading 49-48, Josh Gasser found Bruesewitz open inside, andhe slammed it home with both hands for a 51-48 lead with 2:47 left.
Then Watford missed two free throws—but he got another chance afterWisconsin lost the ball. He hit a long jumper in transition, cutting the lead toone with 2:05 left.
Evans then came up with a critical rebound and was fouled. He made two freethrows to put Wisconsin up by three with 1:04 remaining. Coming out of atimeout, Zeller missed inside for the Hoosiers.
Taylor missed but Bruesewitz came up with a rebound and was fouled. He hittwo free throws to put the game away.
Indiana came into Thursday’s game shooting 50 percent from the field thisseason, best in the Big Ten.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, has been even more reliant than usual on 3-pointshooting. When the Badgers are on, they’re tough to beat—and when they’re not,they have typically struggled, although they turned that around Thursday.
Indiana played to the scouting report in the first half, shooting 50 percentfrom the field and taking a 27-25 lead. Wisconsin was 2 of 8 from 3-point rangein the first half, with Taylor going 0 for 3.
There was a fair amount of NFL star power in the stands, as Houston Texansdefensive lineman J.J. Watt and former Green Bay Packers right tackle MarkTauscher—both ex-Badgers—attended the game.
Watt probably appreciated the defense.
“When shots aren’t going down, you’ve got to rely on your defense a littlebit,” Berggren said. “We did a pretty good job of being able to do thattonight.”
