Big Ten road games without your best player are a perilous enterprise.
The No. 14 Wisconsin Badgers (11-3, 3-1 B1G) fall to the Illinois Fighting Illini (10-5, 1-3 B-G), 79-69, from the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois. UW’s winning streak ends at six games. UW has lost five in a row to Illinois.
The Badgers obviously would have had a better game with Tyler Wahl, but the UW defense with or without Wahl wasn’t good enough. Looked like they were on their heels and guessing all game.
Steven Crowl finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds and Chucky Hepburn finished with 22 points and seven assists.
UW finished with just nine turnovers, but the alarming un-Wisconsin-like number was they went 5-for-12 (41.7%) at the free throw line in this game.
Greg Gard postgame said about Tyler Wahl’s ankle: “He’s improving, but not ready yet.”
Time for Wisconsin to learn from it and move on to next.
Up Next:
Wisconsin will host the Michigan State Spartans (11-4, 3-1 B1G) at the Kohl Center on Tuesday, January 10th. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. (Central Time) and will be nationally televised on ESPN.
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Nick Obot 