Recap: Badgers Blow Past Hoosiers 69-58: Sam Dekker Scores 16 points

After a surprisingly slow start for Wisconsin, they entered halftime down by a score of 29-19.  The Badgers had been rolling, so to be held to just 19 points at halftime is pretty amazing.  However, coming out of the break, Wisconsin completely railroaded the Hoosiers and pulled away significantly.  The game was not close at the end and Wisconsin got revenge for Indiana's court storming upset earlier this year.  Tom Crean still has not won in Madison at Indiana.

Wisconsin had a split effort.  Sam Dekker scored 16 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.  Frank Kaminsky scored 10 points, but was also able to snag 9 rebounds, just one rebound away from a double-double.  Finally Traevon Jackson had a solid game scoring 14 points and making 4 of 5 from the line.  Nigel Hayes was a bit quiet with 4 points.

For Indiana, it was largely a "star" based game.  Yogi Ferrell and Noah Vonleh combined for 42 of the team's 58 points.  In fact, the only other starter that scored was Will Sheehey who netted 7 points.  Stanford Robinson had 7 points and 5 rebounds as well.  Austin Etherington and Troy Williams combined for 9 rebounds.

For Wisconsin, this was a big win for a few reasons.  First, they stayed in the conference race.  They are 1.5 games back from Michigan and only 0.5 games back from Michigan State.  Though the odds are still pretty slim, we have seen some pretty crazy stuff this season, so let's not count them out just yet.  The Badgers also extended their winning streak to 6 games and are strengthening their shot at a Big Ten Tournament bye and a great seed in March.

For Indiana, this is a devastating loss for a few reasons.  First, if there was even a glimmer of hope remaining for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, it's gone now.  They are not making it unless they win the Big Ten Tournament.  It's time to just be clear about that.  In fact, their NIT status might even be starting to get questioned at this point.  They have to win at least a game or two to end the year if they want to assure themselves of that bid.  This is also a disappointing loss because of how the team performed early.  They were playing pretty well early, but fell apart after halftime.  This has happened several times this season and there is simply no excuse.  You wonder if it's an adjustment issue or simply due to players not showing as much effort.  Either way, it's not a good trend.

Wisconsin is now 23-5 overall and 10-5 in the Big Ten.  Indiana is now 15-12 overall and 5-9 in the Big Ten.