Wisconsin 57, Purdue 53: Happ, Davison help Badgers stun No. 6 Boilermakers

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON – For 40 minutes Thursday night, the Kohl Center sounded and felt like it did when Wisconsin made back-to-back Final Four runs.

For 40 minutes, Greg Gard and his players showed they could compete with and take down one of the top teams in the Big Ten and country.

Led by Ethan Happ and Brad Davison, who made critical plays throughout the second half, UW overcame a seven-point deficit in the final nine-plus minutes to stun No. 6 Purdue, 57-53, in front of an announced crowd of 17,287.

BOX SCORE: Wisconsin 57, Purdue 53

On the night former national player of the year Frank Kaminsky saw his No. 44 rise to the rafters of the Kohl Center, the Badgers played like champions down the stretch and hundreds of fans stormed the court to celebrate.

"It was nuts," Happ said. "I was sweating from the game. I was already yelling and once I was surrounded by the fans I started to overheat a little bit."

Happ struggled to score over 7-foot-2 Isaac Haas in the opening half and hit just 3 of 11 shots in the first 10 minutes, though UW battled to a 21-21 tie.

Undaunted, Happ hit 6 of 9 shots after halftime and buried two critical free throws with 26.5 seconds left to give UW a 54-49 lead. He finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out with 21.6 seconds left.

Before leaving the court, he huddled with his teammates and screamed: "We're not going to lose this (expletive) game."

Happ passed Kirk Penney (1,454 points), Kaminsky (1,458) and Bronson Koenig (1,459 points) to move up to No. 10 on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,463 points.

Davison, who played his worst game of the season in a 78-50 loss to the Boilermakers last month when he finished with five points and seven turnovers, added 16 points Thursday. He hit 5 of 9 field-goal attempts and 4 of 4 free throws and had just one turnover in 36 minutes.

"I didn’t shoot well and turned the ball over a lot and really hurt the team," Davison said of the first meeting. "And as a team, we really didn’t play well so we had a sour taste in our mouths coming in here."

Brevin Pritzl played a solid all-around and contributed eight points, six rebounds and three assists. He hit 3 of 4 free throws in the final 19.1 seconds.

UW hit just 13 of 20 free throws but went 5 of 6 over the final 26.5 seconds.

Purdue used a 10-0 run to take a 39-32 lead with 9 minutes 39 seconds left but Happ scored six points and Davison added four points and an assist to spark a 15-4 run. that allowed UW to take a 47-43 lead with 3:37 left.

"As of late, we’ve gotten down big and then we make our run and it’s only cut to seven or eight points," Happ said. "So we knew that having it be that close, that we were due for a run."

Davison closed with a huge baseline jumper; Happ added a basket and the two critical free throws -- after hitting just 1 of 4 free-throw attempts on the previous two possessions -- and Pritzl came through at the line.

"I thought the difference was Davison late," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "He made a tough shot but he also broke us down three times off the dribble. We have to do a better job at that time of containing him.

The stunning victory was the first this season over a ranked team for UW (12-16, 5-10) in eight tries.

UW entered the night 0-7 against ranked teams, with the average margin of defeat 11.7 points.

Purdue (23-5, 12-3), once riding a 19-game winning streak and unbeaten in Big Ten play, suffered its third consecutive loss.

Sophomore guard Carsen Edwards hit 4 of 10 three-pointers and 8 of 19 shots overall to score 22 points to lead the Boilermakers.

Edwards hit 3 of his first 6 three-pointers but went 1 of 4 in the second half. UW's Khalil Iverson (three blocks, 10 rebounds) blocked a three-point attempt with UW holding a 51-47 lead.

Haas and Vincent Edwards added 12 and 10 points, respectively, for Purdue. But the Boilermakers shot just 23.5% from three-point range (4 of 17) and 39.6% overall (19 of 48). They shot 63.6% from three-point range (14 of 22) and 51.7% overall (30 of 58) in the teams' first meeting.

When the final buzzer sounded, Kaminsky and former teammates such as Ben Brust, Josh Gasser, Nigel Hayes, Sam Dekker, Duje Dukan, Zak Showalter and Koenig joined the celebration on the court.

"To be able to play like this in front of them sends a good message," Gard said. "And that’s what my message was to the team.

"You want to say thanks to Frank? You want to say thanks to all the alumni? The best way to show respect and give your thanks and show your salute, go out and play really well."