John Shurna only seems to score on difficult shots.

The sophomore forward was the only viable scoring option for the Wildcats for large stretches of their 70-63 loss to No. 14 Wisconsin. He abused Wisconsin’s Tim Jarmusz for the better part of 40 minutes on a variety of pullups, bank shots in traffic and hard drives to the hole to the tune of a game-high 26 points.

But in crunch time, on an afternoon where everything had been falling, Shurna had two of his easiest shots of the afternoon: a lefty layup and an uncontested short jumper to tie the game after rallying NU back from a 14-point deficit.

“Johnny went to the basket, right to the rim, I thought he almost could’ve stuffed it with his left hand there, which he likes to do,” coach Bill Carmody said. “And then, another time, he had a seven-foot banker and he just sort of skimmed it off the backboard.”

The Badgers extended their record at the Kohl Center to 53-1 against unranked conference opponents, and the loss assured the Cats would finish without a winning Big Ten record for the 42nd consecutive season.

The Cats didn’t seem overmatched at first, leading early in the game. Although NU’s defense was suspect-the Badgers hit their first six attempts from the field-Shurna kept the Cats close, connecting on his first three shots on his way to 11 first-half points. But after a Shurna layup cut the Wisconsin lead to three, the Badgers clamped down on defense and finished the period outscoring the Cats 17-6.

The Badgers finished the half shooting 75 percent, including 5-of-9 from beyond the 3-point arc, and entered the intermission with a 14-point lead.

“We left guys open we shouldn’t have,” Carmody said. “Guys drive, not to score, but just to suck defenders in, and then they throw it out. We fell prey to that.”

But despite the deficit, the Cats didn’t feel they were out of it.

“In the first half they were 15-for-20,” Carmody said. “But we were 10-for-20, so we thought all along we could get good shots.”

After the break it seemed NU would experience more of the same, as it was unable to make any inroads into a Badger lead that was as large as 14 in the first 10 minutes of the period. NU’s defense had succeeded in reducing the Badgers’ shooting percentage, but it was lacking a sense of urgency. Five times in the half’s opening 10 minutes, the Cats forced a missed shot, only to allow an offensive rebound, and twice the Cats bailed out Wisconsin jump shooters with unnecessary fouls late in the shot clock.But when Carmody extended his 1-3-1 zone and sent Jeremy Nash and Michael Thompson to apply near-full court pressure, the Cats finally started clicking.

“Our defense really helped our offense,” Shurna said. “We made sure every shot they took was a tough one. We forced them to miss some shots, and we had more confidence offensively”

NU forced turnovers on four of five possessions to spark a 10-0 run that culminated in a layup by Thompson. It was his first shot attempt of the game and cut the lead to three.

“Sometimes we tell him to take over a little sooner,” Carmody said of Thompson. “But when it comes down to crunch time, the ball was in his hands, and he did some good stuff.”

Taking advantage of the Badgers’ mistakes, the Cats were able to pull within one. In addition to the turnovers, Wisconsin’s shooting touch cooled off dramatically, and Trevon Hughes missed the front end of a one-and-one while Jon Leuer missed 3-of-4 late free throws.

But the Cats were never able to tie the game. Shurna’s missed chip shots cost the team four crucial points, but when Jarmusz missed a free throw with 30 seconds remaining, the Cats were only down three and could hold for the final shot.

They opted to go for the quick two, but nothing developed. With 11 seconds remaining, Thompson drove to the hoop, but the 5-foot-10 point guard couldn’t get his layup over Leuer, the Wisconsin forward in his second game back from an injury. His block sealed the Cats’ fate, as free throws allowed the Badgers to come out with the victory.

Even though the comeback fell short, further damaged NU’s NCAA Tournament hopes, Carmody praised his team’s performance.

“They worked their tails off and fought back hard, ” Carmody said. “So I’m really proud of them.”[email protected]