MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Steven Crowl scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds for No. 13 Wisconsin, and the Badgers fended off Minnesota for a 68-67 victory on Wednesday night.

Tyler Wahl added 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Badgers (22-5, 13-4), who pulled into a first-place tie in the Big Ten with Purdue. Illinois is a half-game behind. Wisconsin hosts the fourth-ranked Boilermakers next week.

Jamison Battle had 17 points and Payton Willis and E.J. Stephens each scored 13 points for the Gophers (13-13, 4-13), who faced their biggest deficit of the game at 59-51 before a pair of 3-pointers by Willis fueled an 8-0 spurt to tie it.

Johnny Davis fouled out with 2:35 left and just 12 points. That sent Willis — who missed the last game with COVID-19 and came off the bench for the first time this season — to the line. He split the pair of shots to even the score at 62 — the eighth tie of the game.

Jordan Davis, the twin brother of Johnny Davis, made a layup with 2:18 remaining for the lead. Then Crowl banked in a hook at the shot-clock buzzer to make it 66-62. With a layup by Willis the Gophers got back within two points, but Wahl worked the board to keep alive a miss by the Badgers and reset the shot clock. Brad Davison, the Big Ten's leading free-throw shooter at 89.1%, made ta pair from the charity stripe to seal it.

With four Minnesota natives on their roster — including Wahl, the 7-foot sophomore Crowl and fifth-year firebrand Davison — the Badgers were nevermore the villain than on this visit to their border-state rival's raised floor at Williams Arena.

The Badgers have won 33 of the last 42 matchups with Minnesota since 1999, and coach Ben Johnson remarked recently about how the Gophers need to do more to make this an actual rivalry.

Since reaching the Final Four in 1997, Minnesota has made the NCAA Tournament only seven times and had just two top-four finishes in Big Ten play. Wisconsin has three Final Four appearances since then and is well on the way to a 22nd trip to the NCAA Tournament and a 20th top-four finish in the conference standings over the last the quarter-century.

Wisconsin proved they've got more to offer than just Davis, who entered the night with the third-highest scoring average in the conference at 20.9 points per game. They improved to 11-2 away from the Kohl Center this season.

The Badgers head to Rutgers Saturday for a rematch with the Scarlet Knights. The game will be televised on Big Ten Network with a 5 p.m. tip.


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The AP contributed to this story.