Wisconsin 64, Indiana 59: The Badgers show their toughness by overcoming a 17-point halftime deficit

MADISON – The reality of Big Ten play smacked Greg Gard’s Wisconsin's players in the jaw Wednesday night at the Kohl Center.

For 20 minutes.

"Hopefully nobody left early," Gard joked after one of the more impressive victories since he took over as head coach. "If they did, that will teach them to not give up on this team."

Amen.

As they had during nonconference play, the Badgers kept battling, made plays on both ends of the court and eventually prevailed.

An improved Indiana team led by first-year coach Mike Woodson built a double-digit lead before the second media timeout, led by 22 points late in the half and by 17 at halftime but could do nothing to stop the Badgers from roaring back for a remarkable 64-59 victory in front of a crowd of 16,013.

"So proud of the grit and the fight and the togetherness," Gard said. "You've heard me say many times it takes all of us. And you never know who and when."

Or how.

BOX SCORE: Wisconsin 64, Indiana 59

The 17th-ranked Badgers (8-1, 1-0 Big Ten) extended their winning streak to six games and beat Indiana (7-2, 1-1) for the 19th time in 20 games at the Kohl Center. Indiana’s lone victory at the Kohl Center came on Jan. 25, 1998, the debut season for the facility.

The Badgers were without three players because of non-COVID illness, guards Lorne Bowman (4.3 ppg, 53.3% three-point shooting), Jahcobi Neath (2.3 ppg) and forward Markus Ilver (1.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg).

Neither the personnel shortage nor the Hoosiers leading for 34 minutes 26 seconds mattered to this UW team.

Johnny Davis, who had scored at least 15 points in each of his first seven games and entered the game at 20.1 points per game, buried a three-pointer to give UW the lead for good, 60-59, with 1:18 left He finished with 23 points and nine rebounds.

"Once I hit that three I knew we was going to win the game," Davis said. "Because we had been playing solid defense the whole second half and they could barely get a shot off in the final minute."

With starter Steven Crowl (five points, three assists) limited to 19-plus minutes because of foul trouble, Chris Vogt gave UW a huge lift on both ends.

He hit back-to-back baseline floaters to pull UW within 57-52 and finished with nine points, six rebounds and one assist. That assist came on a kick-out to Davis for the go-ahead three-pointer.

"He was awesome," senior guard Brad Davison said of Vogt. "He was hitting floaters from the baseline. Post moves with his back to the basket and getting offensive rebounds."

Davison, 9 of 17 from three-point range and 15 of 27 overall in the previous two games, was hounded all night. He finished 2 of 7 from three-point range and 3 of 12 overall but still finished with eight points, four rebounds, three assists and just one turnover.

Tyler Wahl grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds, added seven points and two assists and had a huge block on a drive by Parker Stewart with 31 seconds left and UW leading by one.

Freshman guard Chucky Hepburn (7.4 ppg, 2.3 apg) missed all four shots he took but hit four critical free throws in the final half-minute after Davis' go-ahead three-pointer.

"He is a gamer whether he is scoring or not or shots are going in," Davison said. "To be able to step up there and knock down four huge free throws to seal the game, it (shows) his mental toughness and also his confidence level."

Reserves Ben Carlson (three points, three rebounds) and Jordan Davis (three points, one rebound) gave UW valuable minutes.

No one could have really blamed any fan who left early, even after just one half.

Indiana’s starters all had at least six points in the opening half and combined to hit 4 of 5 three-pointers and 16 of 22 shots overall to help the Hoosiers build a 42-25 lead.

Indiana hit 5 of 8 three-pointers and 17 of 31 shots overall in the half.

"I thought offensively we ended up either turning the ball over or taking some bad shots and we didn’t play inside-out like we have," Gard said of the first 20 minutes. "And that resulted in not being able to get our defense set. So we were scrambling and gave up some transition threes and gave them a lot of confidence."

UW ran better offense in the second half and clamped down defensively.

The Hoosiers went 0 for 5 from three-point range and 7 for 31 overall after halftime. They scored three points over the final 8:58, zero in the final 3:11 after Race Thompson (12 points) scored off an offensive rebound to give the Hoosiers a 59-53 lead.

Indiana's leading scorer, Trayce Jackson-Davis (21.0 ppg). was held to a season-low nine points.

"Well, it wasn't like we were flat," Woodson said. "We just couldn't get a shot. So you got to give Wisconsin a little credit for their defense."

You want a tough team that continues to find ways to win games? Meet these Badgers.

"We got back to being ourselves in the second half," Gard said. "I’m not sure who that team was in the first half. I asked to have the team I had seen for the first eight games. And that team obviously did a terrific job in the second half."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin 64, Indiana 59: UW wipes out a 17-point halftime deficit