Badgers survive drought, beat Minnesota in overtime
Jordan Taylor and the Wisconsin Badgers watched their shooting touch abandon them during a frantic rally by border-state rival Minnesota.
The frustration didn’t linger into overtime, though. It didn’t even last past half court. That’s the way Bo Ryan coaches them to think on defense.
Taylor scored 27 points for his first college win in his home state, and No. 21 Wisconsin gutted out a 68-61 victory over the host Gophers on Thursday night.
“We did a good job of sticking together and finding a way to claw one out,” Taylor said.
The Badgers (19-6, 8-4 Big Ten) failed to score over the last 7½-plus minutes of the second half while the Gophers (17-8, 5-7) dug out of a 13-point hole. But that dogged Wisconsin defense came back in the overtime even though the Badgers’ shooting touch and offensive movement didn’t.
“Our guys didn’t let that bother them down at the defensive end. They didn’t get out of what we were doing,” Ryan said.
Andre Hollins had a career-high 20 points, including five 3-pointers, and 6 rebounds for Minnesota, and Rodney Williams scored 16 points.
Ryan Evans had 17 points and 11 rebounds for Wisconsin, which went 15-for-17 from the free-throw line in overtime.
“Anytime you can win on the road against a tough opponent it’s always fun. I haven’t won here, so I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t enjoy that a little bit,” said Taylor, who had only one other 20-point game this season.
The Badgers made only one basket over the last 9½ minutes of the second half, a putback by Jared Berggren — one of three Minnesotans in Wisconsin’s starting lineup — with 7:43 remaining.
The game went to overtime tied at 51-51.
Tennessee St. 72, Murray St. 68:
Robert Covington had 17 points and 8 rebounds to lead Tennessee State to a victory over No. 9 Murray State, handing the Racers their first loss of the season.
Isaiah Canaan had 31 points and 6 rebounds for Murray State (23-1, 11-1 Ohio Valley Conference), which was the last unbeaten team in Division I.
The Tigers (16-10, 9-4) led 69-68 when a turnover gave Murray State the ball with 11.2 seconds to play. Tennessee State stole the inbounds pass. Covington was fouled with 9.7 seconds left but he missed both free throws.
Canaan turned the ball over and committed a foul with 3.5 seconds to play. Kenny Moore made 2 free throws to make it a 3-point lead.
Murray State again turned the ball over on a long inbounds pass and Jordan Cyphers made 1 of 2 free throws to seal the upset.