The 11th ranked Wisconsin men had their six game winning streak snapped Saturday as they lost to Iowa, 72-65. Its the Badgers first loss to an unranked opponent at the Kohl Center since falling to Illinois in February of 2010. They drop their home conference opener for the first time in 13 years and for the first time under Bo Ryan. Coach Ryan’s Badgers are now 8-1 against the Hawkeyes at the Kohl Center. Wisconsin is now 1-1 in Big Ten play this season and they are 12-2 overall. Its Iowa’s first victory at the Kohl Center since 2000. The Hawkeyes even their conference record at 1-1 and improve to 9-6 overall.
Wisconsin snapped a 31-31 halftime tie by scoring the first seven points of the second half. Iowa would rally to tie the game at 44 and then the Hawkeyes used a 20-8 run to build a 64-52 lead with 3:25 to play. The Badgers Josh Gasser made four free throws after a foul and a technical and then the sophomore guard made a lay-up to cut the Iowa lead to 64-58. Down 68-60 with 52 seconds to play, Jordan Taylor hit a three and Ben Brust converted a steal into a lay-up three seconds later and Wisconsin found itself down just three. However, that’s as close as they would get as Bo Ryan loses at the Kohl Center for just the 13th time in 173 games.
Wisconsin was ice cold from three point range, hitting only 3 of 28 attempts from behind the arc. Jordan Taylor scored 17 points to lead the Badgers. Jared Berggren added 12 and Josh Gasser and Ben Brust both added 11. Wisconsin returns to action Tuesday night when they host Michigan State.
