MADISON, Wis. – On its second possession of the second half, Wisconsin forward Marcus Landry drove to the basket and was hacked by Northwestern guard Craig Moore, sending Landry to the line.
Landry hit both free throws, starting what amounted to an 8-0 Wisconsin run that gave the No. 17 Badgers the lead for good in what became a 62-50 win over the Wildcats on Saturday night.
Both fouls and Landry proved to be too much for NU in a game in which the Cats (6-9, 0-5 Big Ten) committed 30 fouls and Landry had a career high in scoring with 21 points.
“It’s a veteran team and well-coached,” NU coach Bill Carmody said. “They knew what they wanted to do and knew how to win and were the more aggressive team looking at the foul differential.”
The Badgers (15-2, 5-0) remain undefeated in the Big Ten while the Cats are still winless after five contests.
Each team battled for the lead in the first half, resulting in four lead changes.
“I thought we controlled the game well in the first half,” Carmody said. “We had better looks than they did.”
But after halftime, when the Badgers retained a slim 22-20 lead, things went downhill fast for the Cats after Wisconsin’s 8-0 run.
“When people make a run you gotta stay upbeat,” Moore said. “You can’t get deflated. Basketball is a game of runs and you need to take their punch and run with it.”
Once Wisconsin found its low post players, it was over for the Cats, who don’t have a player taller than 6-8 against Wisconsin, who at times had 6-11 forward Brian Butch playing man-to-man defense against 5-10 Michael Thompson.
“(The Badgers) were the more aggressive team and were going to the basket,” Carmody said. “They were getting the ball inside and they’ve got a couple of big guys that were tough for us to handle.”
Both of the Badgers 6-7 swingmen, Landry and Joe Krabbenhoft, had monster games by drawing fouls and making their free throws.
The 30 fouls by the Cats included five each from forward Jeff Ryan and Moore. Foul trouble put pressure on the team to play clean, after Ryan and Moore fouled out and three other players picked up their fourth fouls.
“We were in foul trouble, serious foul trouble,” Carmody said. “We had different guys playing new spots and they had good individual defense and good team defense. They were responsible for the fact we didn’t get the same looks we did in the first half.”
Foul trouble on Moore, Kevin Coble and the tough Badgers defense led to Thompson stepping up to lead the Cats in scoring with 16 points, as well as having five assists.
“I saw a lot of driving lanes were open,” Thompson said. “I saw Craig and Kevin were covered and the lane was open pretty much open for me to finish by myself.”
Moore and Coble, who combined for 41 points in the Cats’ 65-47 win over Chicago State on Wednesday, combined for just 13 points against the Badgers, on 5-of-15 shooting.
Thompson’s play was too little, too late for the Cats, who couldn’t get the Badgers out of their groove.
Wisconsin’s lead fluctuated between eight and 15 points for the majority of the second half.
“It went from a close game at the half to a 10-point game,” Carmody said. “We hung around a bit, but we couldn’t get them to the point where they felt uncomfortable.”
But even in defeat the Cats found reason to remain optimistic, especially in the first half, against a ranked team on the road.
“We controlled the game and if anything our confidence went up defensively and offensively – my shot felt great personally,” Moore said. “We set high-ball screens to draw their big men out that opened things up for Juice (Thompson).”
Reach Brian Regan at [email protected].
