Rutgers has been playing tough against top opponents lately, especially at home, but the Wisconsin Badgers were able to pull out at 66-61 victory over the Scarlet Knights on Saturday.
After Purdue lost earlier in the day, the Badgers are now solely in possession of first place in the Big Ten Standings heading into the final week of the regular season.
Johnny Davis had another solid performance, scoring 19 points on 6-19 shooting with eight rebounds. Brad Davison added 14 points, going 4-8 on three point attempts. Chucky Hepburn also scored 13 while Tyler Wahl had 11 points and Steven Crowl had seven.
Geo Baker led the scoring for Rutgers with 19 points and 16 of them came in the second half and Ron Harper Jr added 15 points.
It was a tough back-and-forth game down the stretch with some questionable officiating calls, but Wisconsin was able to pull away just enough down the stretch to take the lead and keep it. Rutgers was able to get back in it and take a few one point leads, but they were never able to stretch it to more than that and Wisconsin was mostly in control for the majority of the game.
Wisconsin moves to 23-5 on the regular season and 14-4 in conference play, which puts them in first place in the Big Ten. They have two games remaining on their schedule before the Big Ten tournament begins. The Badgers will face Purdue at the Kohl Center on Tuesday, March 1st and then finish the regular season on Sunday, March 6th against Nebraska.