Wisconsin falls to Purdue in 84-80 overtime thriller

MADISON—The Ethan Happ-Carsen Edwards Show lived up to its billing on Friday night inside the Kohl Center, even allowing the college basketball faithful an opportunity to watch them play against each other for an extra five minutes.

However, Edwards and the Purdue Boilermakers pulled out an 84-80 win over the Wisconsin Badgers in overtime.

Edwards scored a game-high 36 points for Purdue (10-6, 3-2 Big Ten), who managed to win one of two key road tests this week.

The Badgers played from behind over 30 of the 45 minutes played and committed a season-high 17 turnovers in the loss. The Boilermakers capitalized, scoring 20 points off of those takeaways.

Redshirt senior forward Ethan Happ scored a team-high 31 points on 14-of-17 shooting with 13 rebounds and six assists. Eighteen of those points came in the first half alone, but he also committed eight turnovers on the evening.

Redshirt sophomore guard D’Mitrik Trice recorded 17 points on 4-of-14 shooting (4-of-7 from three-point range), while sophomore guard Brad Davison tallied 11 of his 13 points in the second half and connected on all three-point attempts.

Overall as a team, UW shot 53.6 percent (30-of-56) from the field—including hitting nine of 16 three-pointers on the night.

On the other side, Purdue also out-rebounded Wisconsin 39-32, and the Badgers allowed 17 of those to be offensive boards. Oddly enough, UW led in the second-chance points category 15-12.

Guard Ryan Cline connected on four of seven three-pointers on way to 14 points on the night, while Nojel Eastern scored 10 points with nine rebounds. Forward Trevion Williams also contributed nine points and 11 rebounds in the win for the Boilermakers.

For what it’s worth, both teams shot poorly from the free throw line. Purdue made 17 of 30 opportunities, while Wisconsin only converted on 11 of 19 chances.

Purdue took a 37-36 lead into halftime, with the Boilermakers going up by as much as 11 points with 8:15 remaining in the first half. Wisconsin countered with a 16-1 run to overtake the lead at 32-28 before Matt Painter’s squad went on a 9-2 stretch that helped regain the advantage. Davison’s jumper cut the lead to one with 29 seconds left in the half.

Wisconsin ended the half making eight of its last nine shots.

In the second half, the teams tied each other six times before forcing an extra period. Wisconsin held a four-point lead with 13:50 left after an Aleem Ford three-pointer, but Purdue went on a 6-0 run to take a three-point advantage at 55-52 at the 11:58 mark.

Wisconsin would tie it with a Trice three to make it 55-55, but Purdue would regain and maintain a lead from the 8:41 mark to the 2:32 mark of the second half. The Boilermakers would be up by as much as seven points at 67-60 with 4:49 left after a Cline three-pointer, but the Badgers clawed back.

Davison eventually tied it up with a three-pointer with 2:32 remaining, bringing the Kohl Center faithful to its feet.

Purdue, however, regained the lead after two Edwards free throws to make it 69-67 on the next possession, thanks to an offensive rebound by Matt Haarms.

With just under two minutes remaining, Happ got to the foul line but made only one of two free throws, still giving the Boilermakers a one-point lead. The All-American candidate hit three of six from the free throw line on Friday night.

Edwards then almost drained a dagger of a three-pointer to make it 72-68 with 45 seconds remaining in the contest.

Wisconsin continue to fight, however. After what seemed to be a rough possession offensively, Happ grabbed the offensive rebound and dished it to Trice, who banked in a three-pointer to again make it a one-point contest.

After two more Edwards free throws, Trice drained his second consecutive three to tie the game. Both teams had one more possession but could not take the late lead, so we went to overtime.

With two minutes to play in the extra frame, Happ executed a perfect spin move and got the bucket, giving Wisconsin a 79-77 lead with two minutes remaining.

Edwards made one of two free throws thereafter, but two consecutive Wisconsin turnovers led to Purdue tying the contest then taking the lead for good. Cline’s steal led to a Happ foul, and he connected on one of two free throws to tie it up at 79-79.

Then after a Happ turnover in the paint—another empty offensive possession—Grady Eifert made both free throws to give the Boilermakers an 81-79 lead.

With 25 seconds left, Trice missed a layup, and again Cline went to the line and made one of two to give Purdue an 82-79 advantage.

Eastern fouled Trice with nine seconds left, and the latter could only convert one of two of his free throw attempts to cut the deficit to two.

Edwards extended the advantage to two possessions by knocking down his two from the line after another Happ foul, and that capped the scoring for the evening.

Wisconsin will need to bounce back up quickly from this loss, as it travels out to Maryland to take on the Terrapins on Monday.