Tyler Wahl scored 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting and No. 13 Wisconsin escaped with a 61-59 win over Minnesota in a Big Ten Conference matchup Tuesday evening in Minneapolis.
A.J. Storr added 15 points and 12 rebounds for Wisconsin (15-4, 7-1), which won for the eighth time in its past nine games and held on to first place in the Big Ten standings. Max Klesmit contributed 11 points.
Elijah Hawkins scored 16 points and distributed nine assists to lead Minnesota (12-7, 3-5). Dawson Garcia scored 10 points, and Pharrel Payne finished with nine points and seven rebounds.
The Badgers went on a 9-0 run in the second half to seize an eight-point lead with 7:16 remaining. Trailing 46-45, Wisconsin surged on a dunk by Carter Gilmore, a layup by John Blackwell, a 3-pointer by Klesmit and a jump shot by Wahl to make it 54-46 in its favor.
Minnesota battled back to regain a 57-55 lead with 2:37 to play. Garcia evened the score at 55-all on a jump shot assisted by Hawkins, and he gave the Golden Gophers a two-point advantage with a layup less than a minute later off an assist from Mike Mitchell Jr.
The Badgers pulled even at 57-57 on a dunk by Storr with 1:51 remaining. Klesmit started the play with a steal and fed a pass to Storr for the game-tying basket.
Braeden Carrington made one of two free throws to put Minnesota on top 58-57 with 34 seconds left.
Storr answered with a pair of free throws to swing the lead back to Wisconsin with 26 seconds to go. Wahl blocked Hawkins’ shot, recovered the ball and added two more free throws to make it 61-58 with five seconds left.
Mitchell finished the scoring by making one of two free throws with three seconds remaining.
Wisconsin built a 34-24 lead at the half.
The Badgers led by as many as 15 points before the break. A 3-pointer by Noah Winter increased Wisconsin’s lead to 32-17 with 4:57 left.
Minnesota scored seven of the final nine points to pull within 10 at intermission.
–Field Level Media