UNIVERSITY PARK — As the Bryce Jordan Center crowd, incredulous there had not been a charge called, booed the officials on their way to the halftime locker room, Patrick Chambers stood and glared — not at the officials, but at his players. Wisconsin guard Jordan Taylor had — after not being whistled for the charge — just put back his own miss as time expired, and Penn State’s halftime lead was six points instead of eight.
Chambers knew the margin of error against the Badgers was thin. He might not have known that Taylor, who had just five points at the time, was only getting started. The Wisconsin senior scored 13 of his 18 points in the final five minutes Tuesday to lead the No. 19 Badgers to a 52-46 win.
“He’s a winner,” Chambers said of Taylor. “He made winning plays. That’s why Wisconsin is leaving here with a win.”
Taylor’s 3-pointer from the top of the key, only seconds after Jermaine Marshall missed a layup that would have tied the score, extended the Badgers’ lead to 43-38 with 1:44 left, and his two free throws 46 seconds later sent Wisconsin (18-5, 7-3 Big Ten) to its sixth straight win.
Taylor’s counterpart, Penn State junior Tim Frazier, had 21 points and seven assists to Taylor’s 18 and five but couldn’t find enough answers down the stretch. The Nittany Lions (10-13, 2-8), made only 7 of 26 shots in the second half and were 18-of-50 (36 percent) for the game.
The Badgers were actually worse, at 35 percent from the field for the evening, but shot 45 percent and made 12 of 18 free throws in the second half.
“Anytime you can win when you’re not offensively exactly burning up the net, you take it,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said.
Wisconsin’s net had icicles on it for most of the first half, when the Badgers had a nine-minute scoring drought. They started 3-of-5 from the field then missed each of
their next 14 shots. Taylor broke the string with a 3-pointer that snapped at 10-0 Penn State run. Marshall, who had 13 points, had six during that stretch plus a nice feed in traffic to big man Jon Graham, who laid it in for two.
“Against a team like Wisconsin, when you have the lead, you’ve got to keep the lead,” Chambers said.
The Nittany Lions could not. Wisconsin had made only seven field goals in the first half but had seven makes in the first nine minutes of the second half and led 33-26 after open 3-pointers by reserves Frank Kaminsky and Rob Wilson.
Meanwhile, Penn State started the half 1-of-13 from the field.
“We just missed shots,” Frazier said. “I think a little bit of it on the defensive end kind of dictated it, and that kind of slowed us down.”
With runners in the lane from Frazier, who had 17 points in the second half, Penn State clawed back to within two on two occasions but could not recover from the late flurry by Taylor.
Marshall and Frazier combined for 34 of the Nittany Lions’ 50 field-goal attempts, 14 of their 18 field goals and all eight of their made free throws. Senior guard Cammeron Wood-yard, who had averaged 19.5 points in his previous two home games, was 1-of-6 and had five points and five rebounds in 30 minutes. Ryan Evans was the only other Badger in double figures with 11 points and forward Jared Berggren had eight points and 10 rebounds.
Chambers liked the effort and hustle his team showed on defense, but it was another night of inept offense for a Penn State team that has failed to score 60 points in five of its last six games.
“Wisconsin was playing to win,” Chambers said. “I felt like we were playing to hang on.”
Notes: Junior forward Billy Oliver, who has been having concussion symptoms, dressed for the game and went through the layup line with his teammates but did not see action for the fourth straight game. … Chambers, in a tribute to former football coach Joe Paterno and to honor Coaches vs. Cancer, wore rolled-up khakis and black Nike sneakers for the game. … Penn State became the nation’s only team to play four consecutive games against ranked opponents this season. The Nittany Lions were 1-3 in those games.
Jeff Rice can be reached at 231-4609.
