Big men help No. 13 Badgers hold on to beat Gophers 68-67

Steven Crowl scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds for 13th-ranked Wisconsin, and the Badgers fended off Minnesota for a 68-67 victory on Wednesday night.

Tyler Wahl added 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Badgers (22-5, 13-4), who pulled into a first-place tie in the Big Ten with Purdue. Illinois is a half-game behind. Wisconsin hosts the fourth-ranked Boilermakers next week.

Jamison Battle had 17 points and Payton Willis and E.J. Stephens each scored 13 points for the Gophers (13-13, 4-13), who faced their biggest deficit of the game at 59-51 before a pair of 3-pointers by Willis fueled an 8-0 spurt to tie it.

Badgers star Johnny Davis fouled out with 2:35 left and just 12 points. That sent Willis — who missed the last game with COVID-19 and came off the bench for the first time this season — to the line. He split the pair of shots to even the score at 62 — the eighth tie of the game.

Jordan Davis, the twin brother of Johnny Davis, made a layup with 2:18 remaining for the lead. Then Crowl banked in a hook at the shot-clock buzzer to make it 66-62. With a layup by Willis the Gophers got back within two points, but Wahl worked the board to keep alive a miss by the Badgers and reset the shot clock. Brad Davison, the Big Ten’s leading free-throw shooter at 89.1%, made two foul shots to seal it.

The Gophers went 13 for 19 from the free-throw line.

With four Minnesota natives on their roster — including Wahl, the 7-foot sophomore Crowl and fifth-year firebrand Davison — the Badgers were nevermore the villain than on this visit to their border-state rival’s raised floor at Williams Arena.

The Badgers were without Lorne Bowman II due to a non-COVID-19 illness and Jahcobi Neath for a one-game suspension issued by the Big Ten for the handshake-line fracas with Michigan, leaving them down their top two backup guards.

Crowl and Wahl made this a big man’s game, another opponent taking advantage of the undersized Gophers underneath. Wahl backed down sixth-year senior Eric Curry for a layup and two hook shots on three consecutive possessions to give the Badgers a 28-25 lead they didn’t relinquish.

The Gophers started by got a big spark from their leading scorer, Battle, who scraped off a high screen to drive and throw down a one-handed dunk on Davis for a 20-15 lead. A little later, Battle swished an off-balance shot-clock beater from the wing with his smooth left-handed stroke and shrugged his shoulders on the way back on defense.

BORDER IMBALANCE

The Badgers have won 33 of the last 42 matchups with Minnesota since 1999, and coach Ben Johnson remarked recently about how the Gophers need to do more to make this an actual rivalry.

Since reaching the Final Four in 1997, Minnesota has made the NCAA Tournament only seven times and had just two top-four finishes in Big Ten play. Wisconsin has three Final Four appearances since then and is well on the way to a 22nd trip to the NCAA Tournament and a 20th top-four finish in the conference standings over the last the quarter-century.

THIS IS 40

Nine players and head coach Jim Dutcher from the 1982 Gophers were recognized on the court in honor of the 40th anniversary of their Big Ten championship. Ryan Saunders represented his father, the late Flip Saunders, an assistant on that team. There were six eventual NBA draft picks on that squad, including first-rounders Trent Tucker and Randy Breuer.

BIG PICTURE

Wisconsin: The Badgers again proved they’ve got more to offer than just Davis, who entered the night with the third-highest scoring average in the conference at 20.9 points per game. They improved to 8-2 in true road games this season.

Minnesota: The lack of depth around Curry has been a major problem, as evidenced by the conference-worst opponent shooting percentage the Gophers have allowed this season.

UP NEXT

Wisconsin: Visits Rutgers Saturday. The Badgers lost the first matchup 73-65 at home on Feb. 12.

Minnesota: Hosts Indiana Sunday, the final home game for the Gophers and their eight seniors.