The Wisconsin Badgers played their second overtime game in three days and found themselves on the other side of the result, beating the No. 8 Illinois Fighting Illini 92-90. It’s a huge victory for the Badgers,
who secured their second Quad 1 victory on the season and earned their second top-10 win on the road.
These types of games have become a theme under Greg Gard, as the Badgers got their second marquee win of the season following their 91-88 win over Michigan back in January. With the win, the Badgers improved to 17-7 on the season and 9-4 in conference play. They now have wins over the top two teams in the Big Ten.
Here are three quick takeaways from the Badgers 92-90 win over Illinois on Tuesday evening.
Three-point shooting
To win this game, Wisconsin was going to have to hit threes at near or above a 40 percent rate. That’s just the way they needed to do things, given how good Illinois’s interior presence was and the way the Badgers play basketball.
Well, the Badgers hit a whopping 16 threes and shot 44.4 percent from deep and still only won by two. That tells you the difficulty of the matchup, but also the impressiveness and resolve Wisconsin had from deep. The Badgers started this game strong, which is exactly what they needed, hitting four straight three-pointers to take an early 18-10 lead.
They hit seven threes in the first half, scoring at a 35 percent clip from deep. Then, they started the second half shooting well and then found their stroke after the long drought, hitting eight more threes in the second half. The Badgers have won big games this year when they’ve hit threes, and Tuesday’s win was one of those.
Blackwell mentality
The Badgers don’t win this game without John Blackwell’s mentality. Wisconsin had a huge scoring drought of 5:13 in the second half and scored only one point over a 7:07 stretch where Illinois went on a 14-1 run to take a nine-point lead.
If the Badgers were going to find their way back, it was going to have to be one of their star players taking over. And that’s what John Blackwell did. Yes, he shot 9 of 22 from the field and missed some shots at the rim, but it was the mentality that really started things for the Badgers.
Wisconsin was really struggling to get shots at the rim against Illinois’s rim protectors, and their attacking efforts weren’t there as much during the cold stretch. But Blackwell was relentless and kept looking to find his way to the rim, either going up with the shot or kicking out for teammates. And like that, the comeback started.
Blackwell started things with a pair of threes before the cold stretch, but then looked to attack and kick, with Nick Boyd and Austin Rapp hitting a number of threes off the catch. With the Badgers down seven with under seven minutes to go, Blackwell’s attacking finally started to pay off, as he got a pair of layups. Then, he got a defensive steal, which parlayed into an assist for an Austin Rapp three to tie the game with 2:19.
Then, in arguably the most important possession of regulation for Wisconsin with under a minute left, Blackwell attacked hard again and drew two, kicking out for a Rapp three to give Wisconsin an 81-80 lead. Then, in overtime, Blackwell hit another three and the final free throws to finish with 24 points and four assists.
But it wasn’t just those moments. Blackwell’s mentality started to resonate with the team, which had a stellar second half defensively forcing turnovers. Additionally, Nick Boyd, who really struggled to start the game, started to see his layups go down, which were crucial for the Badgers.
The Badgers don’t pull this incredible win off without Blackwell.
Resiliency
This Badgers team just doesn’t give up.
Wisconsin started this one strong, which was crucial, as they were hitting their shots and staying out ahead of the Illini. They did go through some lulls offensively as Illinois started to get ahead, having a two and four-minute scoreless stretch in the period, but still went into halftime down only six.
The Badgers also responded really well out of the gate in the second half, which was just as crucial as their opening start. They started the period with an 8-0 run, with good defense turning into a pair of triples on the other side, and led 51-49 after the first two and a half minutes.
From there, though, things got rough as Wisconsin scored just one point over the next seven minutes, which allowed Illinois to flip the script and take an 11-point lead with 11:40 left in the game. But this Badgers team has shown several times this season that they can engineer a double-digit second-half comeback.
In six of their last nine games, they’ve done so, winning five of those, with the exception being Saturday’s overtime loss to Indiana. That was the case again on Tuesday, as the Badgers found their form again and slowly started to chip away at the lead against a team that you don’t want to be trailing by double digits against.
Still, after some back-and-forth action, the Badgers trailed by 10 with seven minutes left, but found success as John Blackwell started to take over, while Austin Rapp started hitting some pick-and-pop threes. But it was the defensive end where Wisconsin really impressed.
Illinois was still shooting the ball at a high rate, but Wisconsin forced eight turnovers in the second half, which allowed them to mount the comeback and take a lead late in regulation before the game went to overtime. Then, in the final five minutes, the Badgers found a way to steal the game by getting ahead early once again.
Playing deep minutes with two overtime games in three days, the Badgers showed great resilience and just found a way once again.
