Wisconsin Badgers trailed their rival, the Minnesota Golden Gophers, by seven points with six minutes left to go in the game. Things did not look good at this point for Wisconsin as offense came at a premium. Badgers only scored 51 points heading into the final stretch of the game. But Brevin Pritzl played a role in leading the comeback with a huge three then Ethan Happ hit a game-tying layup with nine seconds left sending the game to overtime. Pritzl continued his hot shooting in overtime as Wisconsin pulled away in overtime with a 73-63 victory. Badgers held the Gophers to four points in the extra period.

Brevin Pritzl’s big night
For the first time in a long while, it wasn’t Ethan Happ who carries Wisconsin. Brevin Pritzl played a large part in Wisconsin’s comeback win. He finished the game with 20 points and six threes. It’s a career-high for Pritzl. He’s been so solid off the bench for Wisconsin in the past few games. In the last four games, Pritzl is averaging 14 points per game, five up from his nine point average for the season, and shooting a dazzling 58 percent from three-point range. That’s a great sign for Wisconsin in upcoming years.

Davison picks up the slack
As mentioned, Happ did not play much of a factor in this game besides the game-tying bucket. He struggled to get going with Jordan Murphy inside guarding him. Thankfully, Wisconsin found its stroke from deep and was red hot for most of the game. Brad Davison continued his good stretch of play with five threes to nearly match what Pritzl did with six. Davison figured out Big Ten basketball in the last month after going through a cold stretch at the end of January, he’s been in double digit scoring for the entire month of February. Being a Minnesota kid, you know this had to be special for him.

Badgers are starting to come together
My good friend and diehard Badgers fan Dozer asked me on Saturday night whilst out ‘How mad would you be if Wisconsin made the tournament?’ He said it jokingly and I don’t think they can pull it all together to win all week in Madison Square Garden yet the signs of improvement are there. Wisconsin continues to look strong down the stretch with role players starting to play better around Happ. The future looks more bright than it did a few weeks ago.

Next up
Wisconsin stays home for their final game of the Big Ten season on Sunday playing Michigan State. They’ve been successful against the Spartans in the past and will look for an upset to finish off the year. If Wisconsin could pull it off, they’d get to seven wins on the Big Ten season which I think most fans would call an accomplishment given everything that went on.

Charlie.