Wisconsin Badgers
Notre Dame
Nothing free for Badgers in 58-51 loss to Notre Dame
November 28, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 28, 2010
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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- A second-half spurt was enough for Wisconsin to shoot Notre Dame out of its zone defense, but it wasn't enough to run the Irish out of the gym.
A hot streak from 3-point range allowed the Badgers to pull ahead by 11 points midway through the second half of Sunday's Old Spice Classic championship game, but the cold snap that followed paved the way for Notre Dame to take the title.
The Irish (7-0) finished the game on a 15-0 run before UW senior forward Jon Leuer splashed a 3-pointer in the final seconds, allowing Notre Dame to pull away for a 58-51 win over the Badgers (4-2).
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After the Badgers used a 9-0 run to build a 37-28 lead on the back of three consecutive 3-pointers by Leuer, Tim Jarmusz and Jordan Taylor, the Irish called a timeout, threw out their 2-3 zone defense and went man-to-man.
With the inside opened up, Jared Berggren converted back-to-back layups for the Badgers and Leuer hit a pair of free throws to extend the UW lead to 11 points, at 43-32, with 9:21 to play.
However, Wisconsin connected on just 3 of its final 13 shots from there, and the Irish put together a 26-5 run before Leuer's late trey provided the final margin.
"We had a stretch there where we got hot, but toward the end we missed some of the same looks, and that's just something we're going to have to improve on," Leuer said.
A 13-for-15 performance at the free-throw line down the stretch helped the Irish pile on the points.
"(Notre Dame) had some guys that made timely baskets and timely free throws, and that's how you win those kind of grinders," UW head coach Bo Ryan said. "Both our teams will be in more of them before the season's out."
For the game, Notre Dame outscored the Badgers at the charity stripe by 16 points, converting 20 of 25 attempts from the line.
Leuer went 4-for-4 at the foul line - and had the Badgers' only free-throw attempts of the night.
"In that zone, they were making sure we weren't getting anything going to the rim and that's usually when you get fouled," Ryan said.
It was part of a game-high 19 for Leuer, who was named to the Old Spice Classic All-Tournament Team after averaging 17.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in UW's three games.
Fellow big man Keaton Nankivil hit his first four shots from the floor to score 9 of the Badgers' first 11 points in the game. He didn't score again, but pulled down four rebounds to go with two steals and a career-high five blocks.
Junior point guard Jordan Taylor finished with 14 points and had five assists against a single turnover.
As a team, the Badgers gave the ball away just four times and committed a total of seven turnovers in their final two games of the tournament.
"That's seven turnovers against two teams that are very physical and experienced," Ryan said. "Boston College had four starters back, Notre Dame had five of their regulars from before, and I thought we did a great job of taking care if the ball."
It led to a 15-3 edge in points-off-turnovers Sunday, but that wasn't enough for the Badgers to overcome Notre Dame's advantage in scoring at the free-throw line and the 14 points the Irish converted from 13 offensive rebounds.
The biggest of those put-backs came with 2:01 left to play, when Tim Abromaitis grabbed a missed Scott Martin free throw and laid it in to give the Irish a 50-48 lead they wouldn't relinquish.
"We just made too many mistakes down the stretch, and (Notre Dame) made a lot of hustle plays, a lot of great plays," Leuer said. "The hustle plays on the other end, we've got to make sure those are ours, and that's what propelled their run."
After playing four straight games away from home, the Badgers return to the Kohl Center on Wednesday to take on NC State as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Tip-off is set for 6:15 p.m. (CT), with the game airing live on ESPN2.
