Wisconsin vs Duke Basketball Recap

Wisconsin 73, Duke 69

Kyle Singler owned the first half of Wednesday night's ballyhooed basketball battle at the Kohl Center. Trevon Hughes, however, owned the second half, and as a result, the Wisconsin Badgers made history on a magical night in Madison.

Duke received a superb performance from its best player, but Wisconsin's team leader answered the bell at a particularly urgent moment, and it was this timeliness that enabled Bo Ryan's ballclub to turn back Mike Krzyzewski's men in a four-point thriller that ultimately gave the Big Ten its first-ever win in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge.

With Ohio State easily thumping Florida State, everyone on the Atlantic Seaboard and in the Midwest was hanging on the outcome of this pivotal passion play, so when Bucky Badger dumped the Dukies, hoops fans in the Heartland of America could finally boast of a victory in this annual 11-game event. Thanks largely to Illinois's incredible comeback from a 23-point deficit at Clemson, Wisconsin was able to put the Big Ten over the top in this tilt. When presented with a once-in-a-decade opportunity, the Badgers didn't disappoint their fans or their conference brethren.

Hughes was the reason for the Big Ten's bold breakthrough, which doubled as an early feather in Wisconsin's NCAA Tournament cap.

The Badgers - who snuck into last year's Big Dance with a No. 12 seed - should find Selection Sunday to be a relatively stress-free experience this time around after a snagging a super scalp at this point in the season. Hughes - the same man who carried UW last March - picked up where he left off several months ago, reducing anxieties on the Wisconsin sideline by singlehandedly holding off Duke's determined rally midway through the second half.

Once in control of the proceedings (up 49-40) with 13:58 left in the game, the Badgers watched the Blue Devils narrow the home team's lead to 57-54 with exactly nine minutes on the game clock. Coach K's kids were able to eat into the Wisconsin lead because of the exploits of Singler, who scored 17 first-half points and then tallied seven more points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Through the first three-fourths of this electric evening, Singler was the man of the match, the elite talent whose questions couldn't be answered by anyone else on the floor. Heading toward the home stretch, Wisconsin needed a counter to Singler's singular excellence.

Hughes became that man.

The native of Queens, New York, who grew up with basketball by playing its inner city game, showed the mental toughness of a prime-time pick-up player when Duke crept within three. Hughes nailed two free throws and a pair of 3-pointers on an 8-0 burst that gave Wisconsin a 65-54 lead with 5:03 left. Yes, the Blue Devils got within one point (70-69) thanks to a series of threes by reserve guard Aaron Dawkins, but with the Badgers clamping down on Singler (who scored just four points in the final nine minutes) and denying any more threes in the final 1:50 of regulation, UW was able to hold off its ACC foe.

The win not only handed the Big Ten a bountiful blessing that could pay even greater dividends on Selection Sunday; the evening's events constituted Duke's first-ever loss in a Big Ten-ACC Challenge game. Yes, history was created in this contest, and it's all because a sizzling Kyle Singler was eclipsed by an even tougher Trevon Hughes.

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