Lamar Wilkerson has stepped up when Indiana men’s basketball has needed him most this season and Saturday’s win over Wisconsin was no different.
The Hoosiers found themselves in overtime after the Badgers clawed back into the game and took the lead in the closing minutes of regulation. When a late 3-point shot from Wisconsin big man Nolan Winter put the Badgers up by 4 points it was two drawn fouls and four free throws from Wilkerson that got Indiana the tie it needed before a defensive stop on John
Blackwell sent the game into overtime.
Indiana hadn’t made a single field goal for the last five minutes of regulation. It made just one in the next five minutes.
A Winter layup and some traded free throws gave the Hoosiers a 2-point deficit before a foul sent Badgers guard Nick Boyd to the line for a chance to go ahead by four, the same lead they’d let slip in regulation. This time was different as Boyd missed the first of those attempts, giving Indiana an opening late.
An opening seized, again, by Wilkerson, who made that aforementioned lone field goal on a second chance attempt before Conor Enright reclaimed the ball with 15 seconds to go after drawing a charge call on Boyd.
Indiana, just as it did against UCLA in overtime, gave Wilkerson the ball and let him go to work. He brought the ball up the court and looked for an opening, driving on Wisconsin’s John Blackwell before getting the whistle he was looking for when Blackwell stepped on his ankle with just under three seconds left on the clock.
From there, Wilkerson made the two free throws and Badgers guard Braeden Carrington heaved an ill-fated prayer of a shot as time expired on the 78-77 win for the Hoosierrs.
It wasn’t pretty and there’s plenty of questions given the growing tendency of letting leads slip in late game situations, but for now Indiana can rest on a Big Ten record that has it pretty firmly in the NCAA Tournament picture.
