John Tonje scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half and No. 18 Wisconsin defeated Northwestern 70-63 in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday afternoon in Indianapolis.
Nolan Winter matched Tonje’s 18 points and four other Badgers scored between seven and nine as fifth-seeded Wisconsin (24-8) advanced to face fourth-seeded UCLA on Friday. UCLA held off Wisconsin 85-83 at home in mid-January in their only previous meeting this season.
Nick Martinelli had a game-high 22 points, K.J. Windham scored 14 with five assists and Jordan Clayton had 10 points for the 13th-seeded Wildcats (17-16).
Northwestern outrebounded Wisconsin 36-32 but lost 14 turnovers that the Badgers turned into 17 points.
The Wildcats jumped out to a nice start, with Clayton’s layup and 3-pointer establishing the first of three five-point leads. Steven Crowl (who finished with seven points) and John Blackwell (eight) clawed Wisconsin back to tie the game.
After a Blackwell three-point play, Kamari McGee (eight) hit a triple and Winter added a jumper for a 22-17 Badger lead. They grabbed the largest lead of the half when Tonje hit a shot from the paint with one second on the clock, making it 37-30 Wisconsin.
Wisconsin held Northwestern to one made field goal in the first 6:42 of the second half to begin pulling away. The Wildcats made just 9 of 26 shots (34.6 percent) from the field after halftime.
For the game, Wisconsin outshot Northwestern 41.5 percent to 37 percent and made eight 3-pointers to Northwestern’s five.
Wisconsin’s lead reached 18 points on two occasions before Northwestern managed to trim it down to single digits in the final minute.
The Badgers were bolstered by the return of starting guard Max Klesmit, who had missed the three previous games with a lower leg injury. Klesmit finished with nine points in 23 minutes, shooting 3-of-5 from the field.
Wisconsin has won the Big Ten tournament three times in 2004, 2008 and 2015, advancing to the title game eight times, including last year.
–Field Level Media
