Wisconsin Badgers beat Iowa; Tonje, Blackwell lead offense
IOWA CITY, Iowa - John Tonje scored 22 points and John Blackwell added 19 to lead No. 21 Wisconsin to a 74-63 victory over Iowa on Saturday.
By the numbers:
Tonje scored 11 points in a game-closing 16-4 run by the Badgers (19-5, 9-4 Big Ten), who won their third straight. Tonje shot 5 for 11 from the field and hit 9 of 10 free throws, including eight straight in the final seven minutes.
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Wisconsin held Iowa (13-10, 4-8) to one field goal over the final 7½ minutes and limited the Badgers to 8-for-27 shooting in the second half.
Pryce Sandfort led Iowa with 14 points. Josh Dix had 13 points and Drew Thelwell 11. Payton Sandfort, who is averaging 16.6 points in Big Ten play, had seven points on 2-for-11 shooting.
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Big picture view:
The Badgers entered in fourth place in the conference and needed a road win to keep pace with conference leaders. Wisconsin shot 29 of 61, and the defense kept the Hawkeyes in check in the closing minutes.
The Hawkeyes, who lost leading scorer and rebounder Owen Freeman for the season due to a hand injury, have lost six of their last seven. Much like Tuesday’s 90-81 loss to No. 7 Purdue, Iowa hung around until the closing minutes.
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Dig deeper:
Tonje had a run of seven consecutive points to start the Badgers’ final outburst. He got to the line twice and made all four free throws, and then hit a 3-pointer with 5:44 left, giving Wisconsin a 65-59 lead.
Wisconsin made 21 of 31 3-pointers in a 116-85 win over Iowa on Jan. 3, the Hawkeyes’ worst loss of the season. The Badgers were 12 of 35 from distance in this game.
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What's next:
Wisconsin is at Purdue on Saturday. Iowa is at Rutgers on Wednesday.
The Source: The Associated Press provided this report.