MINNEAPOLIS — Wisconsin’s AJ Storr had too much for Northwestern in a 70-61 win for the Badgers in a Big Ten tournament quarterfinal matchup.
Big man Steven Crowl gave the Wildcats a hard time, too.
Wildcats star Boo Buie punched back as many times as he could, but his team needed more than one guy who could summon a meaningful response.
Storr, who grew up in Rockford and Kankakee, scored a career-high 30 for the winners, who advance to meet Purdue on Saturday at noon. Crowl, from the Twin Cities suburbs, had 19.
Buie — who tried to steal the show — had 29 in what likely was the last game against a conference foe for the school’s all-time scoring leader. Next up: the NCAA Tournament, barring a shocking development in Selection Sunday.
“We’re looking forward to the next game,” Buie said. “On to the next.”
Northwestern (21-11) got out fast thanks to Buie, and pretty much only Buie. When he pulled up from 25 feet and buried his third three-point shot in four attempts, the lead was 16-8. When he hit from deep again, it was 21-10 and he’d already scored 16. What would have been a fifth Buie three was waved off due to an off-the-ball offensive foul on Blake Preston.
It was Buie’s show, but his teammates might as well have been spectators eating popcorn given how little they were contributing in a game that went to the half — after a 20-4 Wisconsin run — with the Wildcats trailing 30-25.
Playing without injured starting center Matthew Nicholson and with starting guard Ty Berry out for the season, the Wildcats struggled to find balance offensively in the second half, too. Storr got fans in red on their feet when he threw down an alley-oop dunk — his 20th point already — for a 47-41 lead with 13:06 left, but Buie calmly swished a contested three 16 seconds later to get himself to 24 points.
Buie finished 7-for-11 on threes. The rest of the team was 1-for-12.
“I just think that overall, as a team, we weren’t ourselves like we normally are,” Buie said.
It’s the second year in a row Northwestern earned a double-bye in the tournament only to be bounced by a lower seed in its first game. Northwestern was the 4 seed and Wisconsin (21-12) the 5, though the Badgers — once ranked as high as No. 6 in the country — were the betting favorites.
“It was two really good teams playing,” coach Chris Collins said. “They got the better of us today. It’s disappointing.”
Northwestern still has been as far as the semifinals only once, in 2017. Its Big Ten tournament record fell to an abysmal 10-27.
