By PAUL GOTHAM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — More than 13 minutes remained in Saturday’s NCAA Tournament second-round matchup between the No. 1-seed Villanova Wildcats and No. 8-seed Wisconsin when Badgers senior guard Bronson Koenig went to the bench with four fouls. He joined sophomore forward Ethan Happ on the pine. A combined 28-plus points and 11.2 rebounds watched as reigning national champion Villanova pushed its advantage to four.
Happ returned with three fouls with 11:59 remaining.
Koenig reentered at the 5:43 mark. Next possession, Donte DiVincenzo extended Villanova’s lead to seven when he connected for three from the top of the arc.
Wisconsin’s string of Sweet 16 trips looked in jeopardy.
Then Nigel Hayes finished a layup. Koenig knocked down a jumper. Hayes fed Koenig for three, and Happ scored in the lane for a 59-58 Wisconsin edge. Less than 90 seconds later Koenig hit again from behind the arc.
The Badgers produced points eight straight trips down the floor.
“You have all types of your ranking systems, statistics, analytics guys,” Hayes said. “The thing is with all those algorithms, they can’t calculate heart, will to win, toughness, desire. They can’t put that into a formula to come out with a percentage chance to win, and that’s the things that we have.”
After committing 14 turnovers (three more than their season average) through the first 30 minutes of play including six miscues in nine possessions over a span of five minutes, Wisconsin scored on 10 of its last 11 possessions.
“Just an unbelievable, gutty performance against a terrific team,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said. “We didn’t play perfectly, but we played well enough, and we had enough perseverance to be able to get things done in the amount of time we had.”
Hayes scored the game winner when he went baseline for a reverse layup.
“It’s kind of a play we run all of the time, just a side isolation,” the senior forward explained. “Ethan set a screen to try to give me a little traffic to try to baseline. Went down there to — I didn’t know what move I was actually going to do before I caught the ball. Just went, did a fake spin, got to my left hand and fortunately the lay-up went in for us.”
One game after connecting on a program NCAA Tournament record with eight three pointers, Koenig finished with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting including three of six from long range.
“I felt terrible, to say the least, when I got my fourth foul, and I was just sitting on the bench trying to be a coach from the bench and help all our guys out. I knew that’s not how my career was going to end. I knew that when coach gave me the opportunity to get back in there, I was going to make something happen.”
Hayes finished with a team-high 19 points. The duo ranks one and two in the country among active NCAA scorers. Hayes has 166 points, Koenig 159.
As an eight-seed, the Badgers are the lowest entering Thursday’s East Region semi-finals. Only eleventh-seed Xavier in the West comes in below UW.
“Seeds don’t matter. I said that all along. These teams are so good,” Gard noted. “There’s so much parity, and teams are so good when you get to this time of year, you just have to lace them up and not worry about that. That’s the approach we’ve taken.”
Wisconsin (27-9) advanced to its fourth straight Sweet 16 – the longest such streak in the nation – and fifth in the last six years. The win was their 13th in NCAA Tournament play over the past four years, more than any team in the country during that span.
The Badgers will play No. 4-seed Florida (26-8) in Friday’s regional semi-final. A 9:59 pm tipoff is scheduled at Madison Square Garden.
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