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Wisconsin downs Indiana in Big Ten quarters

Mar 10, 2012 - 12:22 AM Indianapolis, IN (Sports Network) - Rob Wilson scored a career-high 30 points to propel 14th-ranked Wisconsin to a 79-71 win over No. 15 Indiana in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.

Wilson, whose previous personal-best output was 13 points, made 11-of-16 field goals, including 7-of-10 from beyond the arc.

"Needless to say we had a player that was in the zone and teammates found him he worked hard to get open," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "And I think Rob Wilson's the story of the game as far as our offense end goes. And defensively, we did just enough to get by."

Jared Berggren had 16 points and nine rebounds for the fourth-seeded Badgers (24-8).

Wisconsin's victory sets up a showdown with No. 8 Michigan State in Saturday's semifinals and was the 266th for head coach Bo Ryan, breaking the record for most in school history.

Cody Zeller, Jordan Hulls and Christian Watford each had 17 points for fifth- seeded Indiana (25-8), which defeated Penn State on Thursday.

Watford added 10 rebounds.

Indiana played without guard Verdell Jones III, who will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a torn ACL in his right knee against the Nittany Lions.

"Having a good player like Verdell not being able to play for us, it's pretty difficult, but a lot of years have been the next guys stepping up, and we fully have the guys on the bench who can fully do that," Hulls said. "But you can't replace directly a guy like Verdell, but we've just got to adapt to that."

The Hoosiers trailed throughout the second half, but did close to within one, 63-62, for the third and final time on a Hulls jumper with 3:47 to play.

With Wisconsin holding a 69-65 lead inside the final minute, Wilson nailed a three-pointer before the Badgers sealed the win at the foul line.

Down 13-11, Wilson buried a three-pointer to ignite a 17-4 Wisconsin run. Jordan Taylor knocked down a trey to cap the surge with 10:21 remaining in the first half.

Indiana trimmed its deficit to three, but a Berggren layup put the Badgers up 36-31 at the break.

Game Notes

Taylor and Wisconsin teammate Ryan Evans contributed 12 points apiece...Indiana shot 49 percent from the floor, slightly better than Wisconsin's 48.2 percent...Berggren recorded nine rebounds.