A Win is a Win; Badgers survive in ugly fashion over Pittsburch

WISCONSIN 47

PITTSBURGH 43

St. Louis Missouri ~  The Wisconsin Badgers beat the Pittsburgh Panthers Friday night in St. Louis in the most ugly way you can win.  Only 90 combined points from both teams were scored, the tournaments lowest scoring affair of the year.

After only scoring 16 first half points the Badgers scored 31 second half points, to give Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard his first NCAA Tournament win.

Wisconsin avoided panic when they trailed by twelve and ended up only down by six at halftime.

The Badgers will go head to head against second-seeded Xavier at 7:40 Sunday night.

After falling trailing by five points with four minutes to go Wisconsin sparked a rally. After a fade-away jumper by Bronson Koenig, his only points of the game, and after Nigel Hayes drove to the basket for two, Ethan Happ passes it to Vitto Brown who nailed a shot from beyond the arc to give Bucky a 42-40 lead. On the next possession Happ made a shot in the paint to give the Badgers a four point lead with 1:43 remaining. After a few turnovers Pittsburgh got the ball back and guard Jamel Artis made a 3 pointer with 26.1 left in the game. Wisconsin got the ball and wasted the clock and then Brown took a shot and missed while Michael Young got the rebound and went all the way down the court but missed the shot because one of his Panther teammates bumped into him. Happ was fouled on the rebound and went to the free-throw line to shoot two shots. Happ made the first but missed the second and Pittsburgh got the rebound and missed the 3 fourths of the length shot.

Ethan Happ led all scorers with 15 points while Hayes added 12 points, and Brown finished with 11.

Jamel Artis led the Panthers with 13 points while Sheldon Jeter scored 9 points.

Even though it wasn’t a pretty win, Wisconsin is 12-3 in their last 15 games and look to take down the Xavier Musketeers Sunday night.

Ethan Happ drives to the basket against the Pittsburgh Panthers Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.