Badgers’ Koenig misses winner with 2 seconds left

La Crosse native scores 16
in loss to UW-Milwaukee

The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team blew a big halftime lead and missed opportunities late in losing 68-67 to UW-Milwaukee.

With 13.4 seconds left, La Crosse, Wis., native Bronson Koenig nailed a 3-pointer to pull the Badgers (6-4) within a point. The junior point guard then missed the winning jumper, a step-back shot with a man in his face with 2 seconds left on clock (pictured above).

Koenig scored 16 points, but was just 5-for-16 from the field – 2-for-5 from beyond the arc – to go with three rebounds, an assist, a block and a turnover.

“We just hit the jumper before and when you’re down you have to get it up, you can’t wait till two seconds on the clock for one,” UW coach Bo Ryan said. “So [Koenig] knew in his head what he had to do and, if nothing else, was open after he came off the bounce, and he set himself up, and that’s a jumper he makes.

“You’re going to tell me (that) he’s going to go 2-for-10 (field goals) in the second half? I thought he had some really good looks. That’s a jump shot he shoots pretty consistently. Maybe not tonight.”

Koenig had this to say of the final play: “We knew we were going to run the high ball screen and just kind of feel it out. They switch-timed me and we were in double bonus, so we probably should have drove and got some contact to get to the line.”

The Aquinas High School graduate is second on the team in scoring at 15.8 points, shooting 42 percent from the field and 37.3 percent from beyond the arc.

The win snapped a 22-game UW-Milwaukee losing streak to the Badgers. Nigel Hayes led Wisconsin with a career-high 32 points, but he missed a pair of free throws that could have tied the game with less than 25 seconds left.

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Akeem Springs hit a pair of free throws on the other end for Milwaukee (7-3), before Koenig’s 3-pointer to pull within a point.

Wisconsin got one last chance after Milwaukee’s J.J. Panoske was called for traveling as the Badgers went to a full-court press.

But Koenig missed the winner, and Milwaukee players rushed the Kohl Center court after the buzzer sounded.

Wisconsin led by as many as 15 in the first half and was up 40-29 at the break, but Milwaukee cut the lead to four early in the second half with a 10-0 run.

Wisconsin quickly built the lead back to 12 with 14:49 to go on a Koenig jumper, but that lead evaporated again thanks to a 13-3 Panthers run. Milwaukee finally tied the game 60-60 with 3:07 remaining, took the lead on a layup with 2:31 to go and never gave it back.