The starting lineups were just announced and the cheers for the Badgers are about 2 to 1 compared to those for the Wildcats. Bo Ryan drew loud cheers, while Bill Carmody heard only a smattering of cheers that were mostly drowned-out by boos from the student section.
20:00 It looks like its Landry vs. Sterling Williams for the tip and Landry gets it back to Butch. But the Badgers quickly turn it over.
19:01 After passing the ball around the Badgers find Jason Bohannon in the corner for a 3 and the first basket of the game. NU 0, UW 3.
17:44 Bohannon missed a 3 and Coble couldn't hang onto the rebound, giving Butch an easy put-back.
17:15 Juice nails a 3 for the Cats' first basket. NU 3, UW 6.
15:38 Butch gets fouled after nice pass, but no basket. NU is passing well and getting chances but final execution has been poor. Peljusic missed an easy lay-up and rebounding is not going the Cats' way. The Badgers on the other hand are playing exactly the way they want to: uptempo and using Butch as the focal point to keep their perimeter guys open. They just need to work on their foul shooting. NU 5, UW 9.
12:52 Baran decides to drive and first nearly trips, almost loses the ball going up, gets it back and puts it in with the reverse under the basket.
10:14 Wisconsin is on a 4-0 run after three poorly run NU possessions and the fans are getting angry at the refs for being a bit too pro-UW.
9:13 The UW fans are pulling the incredulous face too many times.
8:35 Coble and Peljusic force a turnover and IP gets it to Nash at the other end for the lay-up. NU 13, UW 15.
7:56 This game right now is an exhibition on how not to shoot the ball. Both teams are under 45% and there are too many dumb fouls called on both teams. Okrzesik just got called for a meaningless foul on Butch.
5:52 Krabbenhoft just got a basket after about three UW tries to put it back. NU really needs to learn how to rebound inside.
5:00 After the Butch dunk the red-clad crowd is on its feet cheering. There is more noise here than when the teams played in Madison in January.
3:47 Baran is playing very sporadically. He is either making hard shots or missing the easy ones. The rest of the team is following his lead, but on defense there is no solution yet to stop Butch and Landry inside. Butch has 7 rebounds and is outrebounding NU by himself.
1:35 Bohannon ended UW scoring drought with a lay-up. Nash is blocked at the other end by Landry and Butch and-one, but misses. Things do not look good for the Cats right now. NU 20 UW 27.
0:00 Bohannon drives along the baseline as the clock expires for the short banker off the glass to give Wisconsin a nine-point lead at the half.
Halftime: NU 20, UW 29.
NU went from 42% to 39% shooting in seven minutes while UW is now shooting 48% after its 8-0 run. Two areas the Cats need to work on in the second half is shooting and how to contain Brian Butch, who had 11 points and 8 rebounds in the first period. The Cats also need to figure out how to prevent the Badgers from turning this game into a blowout after the break like what happened in Madison.
Second Half
And we're back. Coble scores on NU's first possession, but so does Hughes on UW's first. The Cats have really stopped even attempting to rebound after any shot. Butch doesn't even have to try except to not let his teammates get in the way of his double-double.
17:41 Juice misses a running 3 and the Cats are really struggling to get shots. Coble was blocked and got his own rebound, but couldn't put it back.
16:52 Right after a Coble 3, Flowers throws the outlet pass to Krabbenhoft for the easy open lay-up.
16:06 Peljusic takes out Butch after Butch gets his double-double. Tempers are beginning to flare and the ref has to bring both teams together to make peace. How nice.
15:26 Butch is the reason NU is licking its wounds right now. After missing a 3 from Madison, the Badgers picked up his rebound, and found him underneath again after a gorgeous cut. Add the Nash foul and the potential for another 3-point play and you could have a 10-point Badgers lead. But NU still hasn't found any way to stop him. Unless of course, IP can get Butch to hit him after another hard foul...But I would still put my money on Marcus Landry to get into a fight after he almost picked one with Vince Scott last season.
13:37 NU is really in trouble now. The "Let's go Badgers" chants are drowning out the music during the Cats' timeout after Landry has scored 5 unanswered points and Juice was called for a foul on the Cats' inbounds pass. Down by 13 after a dumb foul should force Carmody to make some changes with his lineup. And that JUST happened as Capocci comes in.
NU 29, UW 42.
13:06 Landry hits a 3 and how has gone on his own 8-0 run against the Cats. Moore gets tripped and the though nothing is called, the ref makes up for it on the other end and gives the ball back to the Cats.
12:31 Flowers gets a thorough talking to from the official for something he did or said down at the other end of the court.
11:53 It looks like everything is going against the Cats. Flowers misses a foul shot and it is tipped back to his team by Butch and the ensuing shot by Jarmusz gets stuck in between the rim and backboard, giving the Badgers the ball again. But the Cats aren't helping their cause at the other end of the court. NU is shooting just 27% in the second half and has four turnovers to Wisconsin's one.
10:25 Coble catches the pass from Juice off the in-bounds pass to end NU's scoring drought, not that it matters as Flowers buries the trey at the other end to increase the Badger lead.
7:48 NU is trying to penetrate to the lane more. Moore and Juice both have drawn fouls on the Badgers in the past few possessions. For this being DM weekend, there is still a surprising number of Wildcat student fans here, though they are still heavily outnumbered by the students from UW. Moore at the line as play resumes after the media timeout and makes it.
NU 39, UW 54 (After the Butch basket right after)
3:44 A foul is called on Juice and as a media timeout is called, the Badger fans go nuts and start chanting "BIG TEN CHAMPS!" To combat the "Let's go Badgers" chants the "Sandstorm" has to be cranked to full volume inside the arena.
2:30 As Butch and Krabbenhoft leave there is a thunderous ovation by the crowd and only a small one when NU senior Jason Okrzesik comes in, though on his first possession he assists Nash's fast break bucket.
1:18 After Juice gets called for an offensive foul running coast to coast, NU puts it TJ Jones and JM Melchior. Go Seniors. The fans are starting to leave the arena as the 11 point deficit is looking to be too much for the Cats in 1 minute.
43.4 NU 52, UW 63 and JO comes out to a standing ovation by the NU fans.
But the real party is for the Badgers who let TJ Jones get a technical and gets a statistic in his final game. The Badgers are Big Ten Champs and the Cats are the 11th seed in the tourney. Oh well. At least the seniors got to go out with playing time.
Final Score: Wisconsin 65, Northwestern 52.
The real story of this game was Brian Butch and his dominance of the middle. Butch finished the game with 20 points and 14 rebounds. By having to respect his game, the Cats gave Marcus Landry, Joe Krabbenhoft and Jason Bohannon all good looks to put NU away. But the Cats killed themselves with poor shooting and being unable to stop Butch and his rebounding might down low.
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