In the penultimate game of their regular season, coming off of a tough loss to Michigan State, Wisconsin was able to keep up a yearly tradition.

The 74-67 win over Minnesota on Wednesday night was the Badgers’ ninth in a row in the series.

A run by Minnesota in the second half tested their hold on the game, but they ultimately prevailed, on the back of John Blackwell’s 25 points.

“One thing about this group is they’ve developed a toughness to them and a callousness to them. When things aren’t clicking completely, they’ll find other ways to win,” coach Greg Gard said after the win.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from Wisconsin’s win over Minnesota.

Once is a mistake, twice is a choice, and three times would’ve been a pattern.

The Badgers nearly suffered a late-game collapse against Minnesota, which would’ve been their third in the past four games.

Their lead against Oregon evaporated, and a tight game against Michigan State turned into a beatdown. There was a point on Wednesday where it seemed like the Badgers were heading for more heartbreak.

For almost three-quarters of the game, Wisconsin was in control of a game they were supposed to control.

Then the Gophers caught fire. Backup guard Brennan Rigsby led the charge, hitting a 3-pointer, two free-throws and converting an and-one dunk. Dawson Garcia finally began to contribute, scoring his second and third field goals of the game.

Within two-and-a-half minutes, Minnesota completely erased an 11-point deficit.

“That was really the only flurry where I thought we were defensively disjointed,” Gard said.

This was the fork-in-the-road moment. The Badgers could have mentally wilted the way we saw against Oregon and Michigan State. But they didn’t.

It quickly turned into a classic Big Ten rock fight. Blackwell threw some blows. Garcia answered. It was a back-and-forth affair for about six minutes.

Enter Carter Gilmore and Jack Janicki.

Gilmore drew contact every time he touched the ball, making four quick free throws and a jumper. Janicki made three tough baskets in near succession, slicing through the Gopher defense with more ease than any of the team’s other guards.

Wisconsin eventually regained their control of the game, winning 74-67.

But it all started with the work of Gilmore and Janicki, two bench players who nobody was sure would even be on the court in the final minutes. This is what March is all about.

While Wednesday night featured enough issues to keep the team humble, the Badgers must feel a sense of pride in how they seemed to make progress in learning from their recent meltdowns.

Coming off of the late-game disaster against Michigan State, fans may have wanted the Badgers to open Wednesday with one of their signature 3-point barrages.

Or, at the very least, some sort of energy.

But in typical Badger fashion, they eased themselves into Wednesday night’s action. Neither team took control of the game to start.

Then John Blackwell checked back in.

After missing three of his first four attempts from 3, it seemed like Blackwell simply got frustrated and decided to stop leaving his scoring up to chance.

He started driving, at and through Minnesota’s defense. The sophomore guard scored nine points within the final 10 minutes of the half — two layups, five free throws.

More importantly, the rest of the team seemed to turn up their aggression after watching Blackwell’s run. It was as if they saw him and thought, “Oh yeah, we can do that.”

Nolan Winter drove and made some layups early in the second half. Then it was Gilmore’s six free throws in the middle of the half that helped build the lead. Finally, John Tonje put the nail in the coffin in the final minutes with some free throws of his own.

All in all, the Badgers went 21-of-24 from the line, including 16-of-19 in the second half.

“John did a lot for us tonight, he was big. Obviously with Tonje being in some foul trouble and not really being in a great rhythm, and Max being out, there’s a little bit more that he has to bear, and he did a good job of it,” Gard said.

Blackwell finished with a team-high 25 points on 8-for-21 shooting. He shot poorly, especially from 3 (2-for-9), but his sheer aggression created momentum that the rest of the team had no choice but to follow.

Despite the messy nature of his performance, this is what star players do. They put the team on their back and find a way to win, bricks and all.

Rarely are scouting reports as simple as they were for the Badgers on Wednesday night.

Their primary job on defense? Limit Dawson Garcia. Everything else should be manageable.

And that was what they did. One of the Big Ten’s best scorers, and players, finished with 14 points on just 6-of-17 shooting.

Garcia was rendered an afterthought in the first half, attempting just four field goals and making one of them. He didn’t make another shot until almost halfway through the second half, to which a few buckets quickly followed.

Unfortunately for Garcia, this short burst was immediately followed by Wisconsin’s own run to end the game.

Most of his shot attempts and makes came in the waning minutes, when he seemed to finally remember that he was the best player on the team.

The fifth-year senior was clearly bothered by the size of Steven Crowl and Nolan Winter. But it was Gilmore’s tenacity off the bench that proved especially bothersome and impactful.

“Really good job on Garcia, to hold him to 14 points on 17 shots,” Gard said.

“I thought Gilmore was, quite frankly, maybe our best matchup against Garcia, just because of his strength and ability to move, and he’s more experienced.”

The box score doesn’t adequately reflect Gilmore’s contributions. He was maybe the most important Badger player on the floor after Blackwell. Heading into the postseason with a player as trustworthy as Gilmore coming off the bench is a luxury that the Badgers haven’t enjoyed in years.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers’ Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @_Perko_, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook