Big Ten Roundup (Feb. 22): Wisconsin Knocks Off Cold-Shooting Iowa Again

Wisconsin kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive, forcing Iowa into a second-straight terrible shooting night in a 64-52 win to get the series sweep. Maryland won again at home, too. Here is our Big Ten roundup for Wednesday.

Tom Brew | Feb 23, 2023

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MADISON, Wis. — Freshman Connor Essegian scored 17 points and Tyler Wahl had a double-double and Wisconsin beat Iowa 64-52 on Wednesday night with the Hawkeyes going through another horrid shooting night.

Wisconsin (16-11, 8-9 in the Big Ten) got a much-needed win in its chase for an NCAA Tournament bid. Wahl scored 11 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and seems fully recovered from an ankle injury. Essegian's second three — his 60th of the season — tied Brad Davison for the freshman school record for made threes.

Wisconsin is just 4-9 in Big Ten games since early January, so Wednesday's win — its second of the season against Iowa — was huge. They have three league games remaining — at Michigan and Minnesota and home to No. 5 Purdue — we every win matters.

"The thing about this group is they’ve been very resilient," Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. "They haven’t hung their heads. They haven’t pouted. They always bounce back and respond when they take on the chin a little bit. That is always a good sign as a coach that they keep coming back and want to learn and want to get better."

It was a second straight brutal shooting night for Iowa (17-11, 9-8 in Big Ten), who fell from third to ninth in the Big Ten pecking order with this loss. They were 3-for-24 shooting from three-point range in the 20-point loss at Northwestern on Sunday and were even worse Wednesday night, going just 3-for-28 against the Badgers. Those are two of the four-worst shooting nights during the Fran McCaffery era. Star Kris Murray had just five points on 2-for-10 shooting.

In 13 games away from Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa is shooting just 27.8 percent from three-point range (71-for-255). By comparison, the Hawkeyes are hitting on 36.7 percentage from three-point range at home.

“Everyone’s just kind of pressing right now. Just seeing it not go in is hard sometimes," Iowa sophomore Payton Sandfort said. "Obviously, I’ve been through it. We’ve just got to stay confident. We’ll get it back. Just keep shooting it. We’re getting really good looks.”

Wednesday's other game

Maryland 88, Minnesota 70: Julian Reese had 21 points and 12 rebounds and all five Maryland starters were in double figures in a blowout win over Minnesota. The Terrapins (19-9, 10-7 in Big Ten) remained unbeaten at home in league play with a final home game on Sunday against No. 21 Northwestern. They shot 68,1 percent from the floor. Minnesota (7-19, 1-15 in Big Ten) lost its 11th straight league game.

Thursday's games

Penn State at Ohio State, 6:30 p.m. ET. TV: FOX Sports 1.
Michigan at Rutgers, 8:30 p.m. ET. TV: FOX Sports 1.
Northwestern at Illinois, 9 p.m. ET. TV: Big Ten Network.

Saturday's games

Michigan State at Iowa, Noon ET. TV: ESPN.
Minnesota at Nebraska, 3:30 p.m. ET. TV: Big Ten Network.
No. 14 Indiana at No. 3 Purdue, 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: FOX.

Sunday's games

Illinois at Ohio State, Noon ET. TV: CBS.
Northwestern at Maryland, Noon ET. TV: Big Ten Network.
Wisconsin at Michigan, 2 p.m. ET. TV: CBS.
Rutgers at Penn State, 6:30 p.m. ET. TV: Big Ten Network.

Big Ten standings

Published Feb 23, 2023

TOM BREW

Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who has worked at some of America's finest newspapers as a reporter and editor, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the Indianapolis Star and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered college sports in the digital platform for the past six years, including the last five years as publisher of HoosiersNow on the FanNation/Sports Illustrated network.