No. 16 Indiana bows to No. 25 Wisconsin 57-50

MADISON, Wis. — Suddenly, Indiana’s resurgence has hit a major snag.

After a 57-50 loss at No. 25 Wisconsin on Thursday night, the 16th-ranked Hoosiers have lost four of their past five games and slipped below .500 in the Big Ten.

Indiana (16-5, 4-5) certainly had its chances. The Hoosiers were trailing by one with 2:09 left, but went scoreless the rest of the way to give the game away.

“Very frustrating, especially when we preach 40 minutes and we only play 38,” guard Verdell Jones said.

Jones and Christian Watford scored 12 points each for the Hoosiers, who had snapped a three-game losing streak with a victory at Penn State on Sunday but couldn’t keep that momentum going.

The Badgers have won nine straight over Indiana, a streak Indiana coach Tom Crean believed his players were prepared to end.

“They were locked in,” Crean said. “Literally a couple things didn’t bounce our way.”

Ben Brust scored 13 points and Ryan Evans added 12 for the Badgers (17-5, 6-3), who have five straight — including road victories at Purdue and Illinois.

“We just had to keep believing that we have a good team,” forward Jared Berggren said. “We really believe that. Despite the struggles at the start of the Big Ten, we knew what we had here. We knew we had guys that weren’t going to give up easy.”

Despite going 4 for 17 from 3-point range, Wisconsin fell back on its defense.

“They play at a snail’s pace, and you’ve got to steal possessions against them,” Crean said.

Berggren had a career-high five blocks, leading the way in a strong defensive effort against Indiana standout freshman forward Cody Zeller.

“Jared did a great job on Zeller,” Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor said. “He’s obviously one of the best players in the country, and what Jared was able to do was impressive.”

Zeller scored seven points on 2-for-7 shooting.

“I had to limit his touches, and just try to battle with him,” Berggren said. “Just try to make everything difficult for him and I was able to come up with a couple blocks.”

Crean didn’t fault Zeller’s play.

“We didn’t give him the chance to post up like he’s used to,” Crean said. “When we settled down we did a better job. Cody’s fine. Cody did a lot of really good things.”

Jones didn’t score in the second half.

Mike Bruesewitz and Taylor had 10 points each for the Badgers. Taylor shot 5 for 14 from the field.

“Obviously I didn’t shoot the ball that great,” Taylor said. “I’m not too worried about that. Like I said, any time you cannot shoot the ball well and go out and get a win against a really good team is always fun, especially a team like that, that has so many scorers, to hold them to 50 points. That’s pretty impressive.”

With Wisconsin leading 49-48, Josh Gasser found Bruesewitz open inside, and he slammed it home with both hands for a 51-48 lead with 2:47 left.

Then Watford missed two free throws — but he got another chance after Wisconsin lost the ball. He hit a long jumper in transition, cutting the lead to one with 2:05 left.

Evans then came up with a critical rebound and was fouled. He made two free throws to put Wisconsin up by three with 1:04 remaining. Coming out of a timeout, Zeller missed inside for the Hoosiers.

Taylor missed but Bruesewitz came up with a rebound and was fouled. He hit two free throws to put the game away.

“They got a couple rebounds at crucial times,” Crean said. “We were in position to win and just didn’t finish it.”

Indiana came into Thursday’s game shooting 50 percent from the field this season, best in the Big Ten.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, has been even more reliant than usual on 3-point shooting. When the Badgers are on, they’re tough to beat — and when they’re not, they have typically struggled, although they turned that around Thursday.

Indiana played to the scouting report in the first half, shooting 50 percent from the field and taking a 27-25 lead.

Wisconsin was 2 of 8 from 3-point range in the first half, with Taylor going 0 for 3.