The first half of Penn State and Wisconsin's matchup in the last Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal of the day was a story of who struggled when.
Early on, it was Wisconsin as the Nittany Lions staked themselves to an 18-2 lead to open the game. Penn State finished the half without scoring a field goal in over 11 minutes, however, and the Badgers cut the Penn State lead to 20-16 by halftime.
It was a tough half for Penn State's top two scorers, Talor Battle and Jeff Brooks. Battle scored only three points at the very beginning of the game and Brooks was held scoreless. Both struggled last night against Indiana, however, combining for only 10 points before coming back to finish as the team's top two scorers.
David Jackson paced the Penn State offense in the first half with seven points on 3-4 shooting. Tim Frazier added six points and four rebounds while Andrew Jones contributed four points and three rebounds. The Lions outshot the Badgers 34%-28%.
Wisconsin guard Jordan Taylor leads the way for his team with a game-high 10 points and Jon Leuer has six. No other Badgers have scored.
With Michigan and Michigan State winning earlier in the day, this is do or die for Penn State. We'll see if the Lions can hang on.