No. 19 Wisconsin beats No. 11 Purdue
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Senior Jon Leuer scored 24 points and sophomore reserve Ryan Evans made two big plays in the final minute to lead No. 19 Wisconsin to a 66-59 victory over No. 11 Purdue on Tuesday night.
Evans hit a jumper from the free throw line with 50 seconds left to put the Badgers (16-5, 6-3 Big Ten) ahead for good at 60-59. He tied up the Boilermakers' E'Twaun Moore for a jump ball that went to Wisconsin with 25 seconds left.
Evans added a breakaway dunk in the final seconds for the last of his 10 points.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Junior guard Jordan Taylor added 15 points and freshman Josh Gasser had 11 for the Badgers, who again showed their ability to bounce back after a loss. Wisconsin, which lost 56-52 at Penn State on Saturday, has won its past 19 games after losses dating to January 2009.
JaJuan Johnson led Purdue (18-5, 7-3) with 23 points — 17 in the second half — for his 32nd consecutive game in double figures.
Moore added 15 points for the Boilermakers and D.J. Byrd had 11.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}With blizzard conditions outside, the attendance at the Kohl Center was announced as a sellout of 17,230, based on tickets sold. However, the crowd appeared to be approximately 13,000.
Taylor's 3-pointer with Lewis Jackson tightly guarding him and the shot clock running down with 25 seconds left in the first half gave the Badgers a 27-19 lead.
But the Boilermakers, who lost their fourth straight road game, opened the second half on a 12-2 run.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Johnson had the first six points and junior guard Ryne Smith had the other six with two 3-pointers, the latter putting Purdue up 31-29.
After scoring 19 points in the first half, the Boilermakers needed just 5:15 of the second half to score their next 20. Leuer kept the Badgers close, hitting two 3-pointers and scoring 10 consecutive points for Wisconsin.
Johnson's 3 with 6:21 remaining came seconds after one by Keaton Nankivil on the other end and put Purdue ahead 52-51. Wisconsin then scored seven straight points in a 2:51 span, only to see Byrd convert a three-point play that put the Boilermakers back in front 59-58 with 1:11 to go.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Evans hit his go-ahead jumper, then Leuer corralled a rebound after Johnson missed a long jumper with 36 seconds remaining. Leuer hit two free throws to push the lead to 62-59, and Jackson was whistled for a foul trying to follow his own miss with 31 seconds left.
Gasser made the second of two foul shots, and Evans then got his hands on the ball as Moore tried to drive to the basket on the right side.