(UW ATHLETICS) CHICAGO – Wisconsin men’s basketball junior John Blackwell dropped a career-high 34 points as the No. 23 Badgers won their opening-round of the Big Ten Tournament, 85-82, over Washington on Thursday at the United Center in Chicago.
Blackwell’s 34 were also the most for a Wisconsin player in the Big Ten Tournament. The Michigan native finished with a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds, while his scoring was powered by six three-pointers.
Nick Boyd tallied 23 points with 9 assists. He went 5-of-6 from three, and marked the 10th game he and Blackwell have each gone over 20 in a game this year. UW is undefeated in those contests.
Aleksas Biueliasukas added 9 and 9 rebounds, while Braeden Carrington chipped in 8 points.
Badgers coach Greg Gard spoke on John Blackwell’s big day. He said that you can tell when he has that look in his eye.
Gard also talked about blowing a big second half lead.
He said that they will learn from this.
Gard said that there is value to the Big Ten tournament.
Wisconsin raced out to a 11-2 advantage on triples from Blackwell and Boyd, while Will Garlock got involved with an athletic and-one slam. The lead quickly ballooned to double figures with another triple from Boyd, and Carrington’s first of the day from deep. The Badgers cooled off and let Washington get a 6-0 spurt of their own, before Boyd hit his third three-ball on a clean stepback.
The Huskies kept responding, cutting the deficit to as little as four points with a minute to go in the half. Wisconsin ended the last 60 seconds on 6-0 spurt, with Boyd’s fourth triple, and a Bieliausksas-and-one to head into the locker room up 43-33. Boyd had 16 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
Bieliausksas picked up right where he left off, canning a triple to start the second half. The Badger perimeter onslaught continued as Blackwell nailed three threes in-a-row, and Carrington hit one from outside 25 feet. Blackwell got up to six triples at the 10 minute mark as UW called a timeout up 13.
Washington continued to have an answer, crawling all the way back to cut the lead to one point with a minute to play. Wisconsin called a timeout and turned to Blackwell, who drove to the paint and sank a fadeaway jumper to break his career-high. Washington got a quick bucket on the other end, before Andrew Rohde nailed the clutch free throws close out the game.
Up Next: Wisconsin, the No. 5 seed in the tournament, will take on No. 4 Illinois on Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Big Ten Tournament. Tip would approximately be at 1:30 p.m. CT at the United Center in Chicago. The game will air live on BTN and can be heard on 99.7 and 101.9 WNFL.
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