Wisconsin Badgers rally to pick up a critical victory over Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS – This was a game Wisconsin could not afford to lose.

Dropping a road game against Minnesota, the last-place team in the Big Ten in the regular-season finale, would have been disastrous with every victory critical in building an NCAA Tournament résumé,

Yet led by Chucky Hepburn, Minnesota natives Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl and freshman Connor Essegian, the Badgers battled back from a seven-point deficit over the final 10 minutes 39 seconds to steal a crucial 71-67 victory over the Gophers on Sunday night at Williams Arena.

"This group," head coach Greg Gard said, "they just keep playing. That is what good teams do. You just have to play through the ups and down, keep battling back."

Wahl hit two free throws with 3.6 seconds left to close the scoring and finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and two assists. He hit 8 of 11 field goals and 5 of 5 free throws to help UW finish 14 of 17 from the line.

Crowl added 21 points and seven rebounds. He hit 9 of 13 shots and, along with Wahl helped UW score 48 points in the paint.

"We knew we had to be aggressive and it was working," Crowl said. "That is just kind of how the game flowed. All of us – the guards, too – did a great job finishing in the paint and getting downhill. I think it was really a team effort."

BOX SCORE: Wisconsin 71, Minnesota 67

Hepburn scored all 12 of his points after halftime and drew two critical charges in the second half. His three-pointer gave UW the lead for good, 65-62, with 46.8 seconds left.

"I’ve hit shots like that before," said Hepburn, who sat out the final 15:40 of the first half after picking up his second foul. "We’ve just got to get a stop the next possession. After a big shot we need to lock in defensively...

"I was able to create space and I’ve been practicing that move and that shot all week. I felt like that was going in no matter what."

Essegian added 11 points. Max Klesmit finished with just six points but he hit 3 of 4 free throws in the final 14.5 seconds and played tremendous defense on Jamison Battle, who entered the night averaging 13.2 points per game. Battle hit just 1 of 6 three-point attempts and 1 of 8 shots overall and finished with five points.

Three days after a crushing two-point loss to league champion Purdue, the Badgers (17-13, 9-11 Big Ten) secured a critical victory heading into the league tournament.

The Badgers were locked into the No. 12 seeding in the Big Ten tournament this week and a first-round matchup at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday against No. 13 Ohio State (13-18, 5-15) before they faced the Gophers.

UW’s quest to secure a bye and open with a second-round game ended when Penn State rallied to defeat Maryland, 65-64, earlier Sunday.

The Nittany Lions (19-12, 10-10) secured the No. 10 seeding and a bye with the victory.

Then Nebraska rallied to stun Iowa, 81-77, in Iowa City. That allowed the Cornhuskers to secure the No. 11 seeding no matter how UW fared because of their victory over the Badgers during the regular season.

UW and Ohio State met once during the regular season. The Badgers built a 16-point halftime lead and held on for a 65-60 victory in Columbus on Feb. 2.

"Our focus right now is going to be Ohio State," Wahl said. "Because right now every game is our last game."

Dawson Garcia (15.4 ppg, 6.9 rpg) led the Gophers with 19 points. Braeden Carrington added 11 and Joshua Ola-Joseph added 10.

The Badgers trailed, 36-29, at halftime after Battle hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer. They trailed, 53-46, after Carrington hit a three-pointer with 10:48 left in the game.

Gard called a timeout with 10:39 left to settle his players. The Badgers played better defense, kept pounding the ball inside, went on a 7-0 run to forge a 53-53 tie, got the huge shot from Hepburn and hit their free throws under pressure.

"Those were all important things," Gard said.

Shoring the defense after the Gophers shot 60.0% in the first half (15 of 25) was job No. 1. Minnesota hit 6 of its first 10 shots in the second half but faltered after that, hitting just 4 of 13 shots.

"We just had to lock in on defense," Wahl said. "We weren’t doing a good job stopping their actions. We just couldn’t get a stop. It took some heart…some soul searching and we got out there and defended a lot better in the second half."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Chucky Hepburn, Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl come up big for Badgers