Gophers miss opportunity with Wisconsin star out, fall to No. 14 Badgers 63-60

MADISON, WIS. – Ben Johnson watched his Gophers basketball team nearly erase a 15-point deficit in the second half Tuesday night with Wisconsin's leading scorer and rebounder, Tyler Wahl, out most of the night after rolling his ankle.

All signs pointed toward the Gophers possibly pulling off the upset with Wahl sitting, but that wasn't enough to take down the rival Badgers.

For the fifth consecutive game, the Gophers fell in the Border Battle, losing 63-60 against the No. 14 Badgers at the Kohl Center.

Ta'Lon Cooper, Dawson Garcia and Jamison Battle combined for 43 points, but the Gophers (6-7, 0-3) couldn't overcome 20 turnovers — coming up short down the stretch to remain winless in the Big Ten.

"I thought we showed good resolve and good fight to climb back down 15 on the road," Johnson said. "But it's such a possession-type game, especially in this league. We've got to value the ball."

The Gophers haven't won in Madison since a 59-52 victory on Jan. 3, 2019. Their last win in the series was three years ago at home, but they were only a couple possessions away from ending that drought.

Chucky Hepburn and Steven Crowl combined for 33 points Tuesday for the Badgers (11-2, 3-0), whose double-digit lead was down to 63-60 after Cooper's layup with 28 seconds left.

Crowl, an Eagan native, missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but Hepburn bailed him out when he stole the ball from Cooper on Minnesota's final possession. Cooper and Battle each had six turnovers.

"All of us were hurting in the locker room," said Garcia, who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds "It just stings. I'm glad we showed fight, but it's still just frustrating to come up short."

Against power conference opponents this season, the Gophers dropped to 0-6, with the first five losses by an average margin of nearly 16 points. That meant Tuesday's narrow defeat was a step in the right direction.

Another blowout looked to be on the horizon when the Gophers opened the game 1-for-9 from the field with three turnovers, but they took a 13-9 lead after Braeden Carrington and Battle capped an 11-2 run.

Wahl, a Lakeville native, went to the locker room with an ankle injury around the 11-minute mark in the first half. The Badgers, though, didn't seem fazed, ending on a 23-13 run to lead by six points at halftime.

Crowl, who finished with 17 points, threw down an emphatic dunk for a 47-32 lead early in the second half, but the Gophers quickly answered with a three-point play from Garcia.

The Gophers crashed the offensive boards with a purpose in the second half and turned up their defense to get back into the game. Battle's back-to-back three-pointers silenced the opposing crowd midway through the second half. His layup off a steal cut it to 54-53 with 8:34 to play.

Wisconsin was held scoreless for four minutes, but another big dunk from Crowl gave his team a five-point advantage. Battle then lost the ball on the ensuing possession with a chance to respond.

The Gophers, who won the rebounding battle 40-24, had a 12-day break between games after last week's contest against Alcorn State was canceled due to weather-related travel issues. They had nearly two weeks between games in December last year after a cancellation and the results weren't pretty.

The momentum from a three-game win streak going into 2022 evaporated with four straight losses in Big Ten play last January. The Gophers ended a five-game losing streak this season with wins vs. Arkansas Pine-Bluff and Chicago State in December, so they're hoping to get back on track Saturday vs. Nebraska at Williams Arena.

"We want to learn and grow from each game," Johnson said. "I know it was going to be a little bit rough to start with the big layoff we had. It was good to just get back out there."