The Big Ten basketball regular season officially came to a close. Now it is time for the Big Ten Tournament. Many teams, such as Wisconsin, Ohio State, and UCLA, are heading into the tournament feeling formidable. Meanwhile, the Purdue Boilermakers and Iowa Hawkeyes are heading into the tournament having been defeated in their regular season finales.
Here is an overview and scoreboard for the final Big Ten men’s basketball weekend of the regular season:
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Here are the scores from Saturday:
Wisconsin 97-93 vs No. 15 Purdue
The top-ranked Boilermakers could not hang with the Badgers’ offense, which was on fire in this matchup. John Blackwell and Nick Boyd were stars in this game, but the Badgers had quite an advantage as they shot 52.9% from beyond the arc.
Minnesota 67-66 vs Northwestern
Nick Martinelli’s magic this season runs out as he misses game winning shot. The Gophers had their way in this game in the first half, but the Wildcats’ defense ramped up, and the shots began to fall. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the Gophers were good enough late to squeak out of this game.
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UCLA 89-68 vs USC
Alijah Arenas had a solid outing in this game, and he posted a team- high 20 points. Arenas’s encouraging outing still was not enough to combat a dominant game from the UCLA Bruins. Donovan Dent had the Trojans’ another loss with another stellar game.
Ohio State 91-78 vs Indiana
Bruce Thornton leads the Buckeyes to a blowout win over the Hoosiers, and he stamps his legacy at OSU in the process. The Buckeyes trio was great again, and Indiana’s scorers could not hang. The Buckeyes, just like Wisconsin, are heating up at the right time, looking like a tough match-up in the Big Ten tournament.
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Oregon 85-79 vs Washington
Kwame Evans Jr. posted a 20-point performance and had 9 of his points in crunch time to lead the Ducks to a season finale win. Evans Jr. was not alone in offensive production as he had 3 other starters join him with scoring in double figures, and the Ducks had 17 points off the bench. Hannes Steinbach was dominant, but he and the Huskies did not have enough to put this game away.
In the last slate to close out the weekend, here is how things played out on Sunday:
Rutgers 74-62 vs Penn State
The sneaky Scarlet Knights had a good offensive night to finish the season, and guard Tariq Francis led Rutgers to one last Big Ten win. Francis had 18 points, and he drilled 3 of his 5 3-point attempts. Penn State’s season ends in a loss, but freshman Ivan Jurić looks promising.
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No. 11 Illinois 78-72 vs Maryland
David Mirkovic delivers as his 22 points and 11 rebounds lead the Fighting Illini into tournament play the right way with a first-round bye. Maryland played inspired and gave the Fighting Illini more trouble than anticipated. Instead of collapsing late, the Fighting Illini did the opposite in this game, finding a way to win on the backs of Mirkovic and late plays by Andrej Stojakovic.
No. 3 Michigan 90-80 vs No. 8 Michigan State
Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg puts up his best performance vs top-ranked rival and leads the Wolverines to a 10-point win. Lendeborg dropped 27 points and was 5-6 beyond the arc. If he can put up a couple more of these performances, the Wolverines can come out of March taking down the nets.
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No. 9 Nebraska 84-75 vs Iowa
Junior guard Cale Jacobsen was the hero of this game as he was perfect from the field, scoring 15 points from the bench. The Cornhuskers’ other usual top performers all scored at least 14 points apiece. The Cornhuskers had the lead late in this game, but missing multiple shots opened the door for Iowa to force this game to overtime. The Cornhuskers got the job done with a dominant overtime,and Rienk Mast got the last laugh vs his former team.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Biggest winners & losers for Big Ten basketball, March 7-8
