Big Ten Basketball: Ethan Happ carries Wisconsin past Rutgers at MSG

Despite trailing by nine late in the second half, Wisconsin came back to defeat Rutgers in a Big Ten basketball game at MSG.

In one of the uglier games you will watch all season, the Wisconsin Badgers grinded out a 61-54 win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon.

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The Badgers were carried by forward Ethan Happ who scored 32 of Wisconsin’s 61 points on 12-of-18 field goals. Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig scored just a combined 17 points on 4-of-20 shooting, but Hayes came up with a critical And-1 in overtime and 11 rebounds, and Koenig hit a huge three with 32 seconds left.

“Well, obviously, not exactly a thing of beauty,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said postgame. “But thankfully defensively we were able to get some things done and kept them off the glass enough, and eventually in just about the nick of time, we got a couple shots to go down.”

This game was anything but aesthetically pleasing for the Badgers. Wisconsin shot just 33 percent from the field, 12 percent from beyond the three-point line and turned the ball over 15 times. The Badgers looked careless and lethargic. They played with very little energy and were completely out of rhythm on offense, especially in the games first 20 minutes.

In the opening half, the Badgers scored just 20 points, made just five field goals overall and shot a brutal eight percent from beyond the arc. Hayes and Koenig had a combined two points at the break, so if it wasn’t for Happ, the Badgers’ deficit of five would’ve been much larger.

Rutgers wasn’t much better on offense for the majority of the game, but they thrived on defense, protecting the rim with C.J. Gettys, Eugene Omoruyi, and others, and limiting the Badgers to one scoring opportunity per possession.

The Scarlet Knights had a nine-point lead with 3:22 remaining and looked like they were on their way to a monumental program-changing upset against the 15th ranked team in the country. Instead, they missed free throws down the stretch and the Badgers started feeding Happ on almost every possession.

With just six seconds left, Happ attacked the basket off the bounce and finished a righty layup over Gettys with two ticks remaining.

The game went into overtime after Nigel Johnson just barely missed a three-point heave, and that was when the Badgers finally seized momentum.

With about 70 percent of the neutral site crowd favoring the Badgers, Wisconsin pulled away thanks to seven points from the man of the hour, Happ.

The Badgers didn’t look anything like the best team in the Big Ten and the 15th best team in the country on Saturday, but they remain tied atop the league standings with Maryland and they got stops when it mattered down the stretch vs. Rutgers.

And that’s what good teams do, they are able to overcome adversity when they’re having an off-night on the offensive end of the floor.

“Our guys found a way, and that’s what good teams do,” Gard said. “When things aren’t going well, you dig down and try to find some way to try to get yourself through it.”

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Meanwhile, Rutgers is the worst team in the Big Ten, but it’s obvious that they are making strides as a unit. Their defense, rebounding, and discipline are all positives, as well as the play of Corey Sanders (15 points) and Johnson (13 points). But Rutgers still has a long way to go in order to make gains in the Big Ten standings. That’s why Steve Pikiell has his work cut out for him.