Wisconsin Badgers
17-5,7-4Big Ten
Northwestern
12-10,3-8Big Ten
No. 17 Badgers claw past Wildcats, 75-69
February 01, 2025 | Men's Basketball
Gilmore's 15 point second half leads comeback
The Badger offense exploded in the second half after a slow start, overcoming a Wildcat lead that reached nine points.
John Tonje scored 27 points, his fourth straight game with 20+ points. Carter Gilmore scored a career-high 15 points, all in the second half. Max Klesmit and Nolan Winter rounded out the scoring with 11 and 10 points respectively.
The Wisconsin 3-ball started off strong in the second half as Gilmore hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to cut the deficit to two points. Gilmore later tipped in a second-chance basket, which gave the lead to the Badgers.
That lead was expanded on with a total of eight 3-pointers in the second. Tonje, Klesmit, and Gilmore all scored 10+ points in the second frame, with the Badgers outscoring Northwestern, 50-38 after intermission.
It was a scrappy start to the game, with Wisconsin getting off to just a 2-for-15 start from the field. With NU leading 12-7, John Tonje got the Badger offense going with 16 straight points. The Wildcats led after the first half, 31-25.
The Badgers outrebounded the Wildcats 38-29, and converted on 18-of-their-21 free throw attempts.
Wisconsin is now 17-5 on the season, and 7-4 in conference play.
Notable:
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The Badgers trailed by nine with 14:40 to play (35-44) and rallied to build a lead that reached 11 with 3:33 to play (71-60). The nine -point second-half deficit was the largest the Badgers have overcome in a game this season.
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UW shot 13-for-32 from 3-point range, the 12th time the Badgers have hit double-digit triples (8-3 in such games), matching the highest single-season total in school history.
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Sunday matched the 3rd-most triples in a game in school history.
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Among Big Ten teams, Wisconsin is tied with Illinois and Michigan for the most games with 10+ triples this season
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Dating back to last season, Wisconsin is 29-1 in games when holding foes to 70 or fewer points (12-1 this year).
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After committing nine first half turnovers, Wisconsin gave up the ball only once in the second half.
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Tonje has hit at least five 3-point FGs in each of the last four games, shooting 21-for-37 from deep over that stretch. He is the first Badger with four consecutive such games since at least 2004-05 and the only player in the Big Ten to do so this season.
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Tonje is the first Badger with four straight games of 20+ points since Johnny Davis did so five times during the 2021-22 season.
