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.
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 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.
–Field Level Media
