As the No. 3 ranked team in the country playing on its home floor, one would’ve thought that Purdue, with its history at home against No. 23 Wisconsin, would’ve found a way to win. But, despite three of their players fouling out, the Badgers shocked the Boilers, 74-69, on Monday night.
The Badgers (11-2, 2-1 in conference) took the lead for good, 65-62, when senior Brad Davison hit a three-pointer with 3:18 to play in the game. He connected on 3 of 6 three-point attempts and finished with 15 points.
“We just have to grow up a little bit and be tougher. That’s all,” said Painter, whose Boilers fell to 1-2 in the Big Ten and 12-2 overall. “We have to be better collectively and we have to be better individually.”
This was only the fifth Badgers’ win at Mackey Arena in 47 games there.
Tyler Wahl, Steven Crowl and Chris Vogt–two of whom are starters–fouled out for the Badgers, but sophomore Johnny Davis did most of the damage against the Boilers with a season-high 37 points and 14 rebounds.
It offset the best game of the season for Boilers sophomore center Zach Edey, a native of Canada, who played against Davis last summer in Latvia during the Under-19 international basketball tournament. Edey finished with a team-best 24 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. ,
“(Wisconsin) just played harder (than us),” said the 7-foot-4 Edey. “They got all the 50-50 balls, they executed better (and) they just wanted it more.”
Nine minutes into the second half, the Boilers led by seven, but never were able to widen the gap due to turnovers, poor free throw shooting and Davis making difficult shots against the defense.
The Boilermakers have held at least top three ranking for seven straight weeks, but will likely drop in the polls next week. Purdue’s next test will be its second true road game of the season when they travel to Penn State to face former Boilers assistant coach Micah Shrewsberry and the Nittany Lions on Saturday.