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Wisconsin rides John Tonje, historic shooting effort to B1G Tournament blowout of UCLA

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Wisconsin has been riding John Tonje all season long. That was no different while facing UCLA in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, though Tonje had plenty of help.

On Friday, Wisconsin and UCLA squared off in a game that was expected to be a hard-fought battle between the 4th and 5th seeds in Indianapolis. Instead, it turned into an emphatic rout early on.

In the first half, Tonje was 4-for-4 from the field (all 3-point field goals) with 13 points as the Badgers built a 48-29 lead at halftime. The second half would produce more of the same.

After halftime, Wisconsin continued to pour things on, running its lead all the way to 27 points in the second half. The Badgers punctuated that victory with 19 3-pointers, tying the B1G Tournament record in the process.

Overall, it was a 19-for-32 (59.4%) performance from 3-point range for the Badgers with Tonje even better. He finished 9-for-10 from the field and never missed beyond the arc, finishing 6-for-6 from deep.

“I feel like it took a bit of pressure off our offense, just to focus on defense,” Tonje said about Wisconsin being able to light things up from deep.

Tonje ended the game with 26 points to lead all scorers in the 86-70 win over the Bruins. He moved into 3rd place on Wisconsin’s single-season scoring list in the process, trailing only Frank Kaminsky and Alando Tucker at this point.

The win sends the Badgers into the semifinals on Friday to face No. 1 seed Michigan State at 1 pm ET on CBS. It is the first back-t0-back trips to the semifinals for Wisconsin since 2014 and 2015.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.