Looking for its second upset at the Kohl Center in as many years, Northwestern left the arena disappointed Saturday with a 65-50 loss to No. 5 Wisconsin.

The Wildcats (10-13, 1-9 Big Ten) dug an early 17-point deficit and trailed by as many as 22 points in the second half before finding some offense late to make the final margin more respectable.

“There’s no quit in my team, even today,” said coach Chris Collins, whose squad is 0-9 since the start of 2015. “It could have gotten really out of hand really quickly. We fought back.”

The Badgers (21-2, 9-1) possess the most efficient offense in college basketball according to Kenpom.com, and it showed during the first half. They opened with 8-of-11 shooting to grab a 21-4 lead not even nine minutes into the game.

“Those first four minutes at the beginning of the game, I thought we were on our heels a little bit,” Collins said after the game on WGN Radio. “I don’t know if we were a little bit nervous or tight, but then we settled down and starting playing. And when we started playing, we did a lot of good things.”

The good things came in the form of a 9-0 run later in the half to pull within single digits, but Wisconsin responded with a 12-2 burst and held a 37-21 advantage at halftime.

Wisconsin guard Bronson Koenig, who posted a career-high 16 points, scored the second period’s first 6 on a pair of 3-pointers. Meanwhile, NU’s offense struggled.

Junior center Alex Olah put the Cats on his back, as the team tried to make one last push in the final eight minutes. Olah scored 9 points for NU in a four-minute stretch to cut the deficit to 57-42 with less than four minutes to play.

The 7-footer finished with a team-high 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting.

The Cats pulled as close as 11 points when junior guard Tre Demps drilled a 3-pointer with 1:01 remaining, but Wisconsin forward Frank Kaminsky’s dunk a few seconds later ended the visitors’ final flurry.

“They’re just too good,” Collins told WGN. “When you dig yourself a 17-point hole, it’s tough to climb back. … Against a great team, you have to play close to a perfect game.”

Overall, after the initial barrage, the Cats defense clamped down on the Badgers’ potent offense.

Wisconsin finished 38.9 percent from the field. Although the Badgers made nine 3-pointers, they needed 28 attempts to get there.

“They’re one of the most dynamic offensive teams in the country and we held them to 38 percent and 65 points,” Collins said to WGN. “Our defense was pretty good, it was those second-chance points, some of the long rebounds and hustle points we didn’t get.”

NU has competed well with most Big Ten teams, but Collins said he thought the differences in experience played a part in Saturday’s lopsided score.

Wisconsin is the second-most experienced team in the Big Ten, whereas NU ranks No. 11.

With a sole victory in 10 conference contests, the Cats are far from where Collins wants them to be. But he still sees the deluge of losses as part of a long-haul process.

“We’re at year two of a building project, and they’re a better team than we are,” Collins said. “They’re a bunch of old guys that have a chance to win a national championship. … We’re building. We have to develop these guys.”

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Twitter: @Jesse_Kramer