John Blackwell sets career best in Wisconsin basketball’s wire-to-wire win over Minnesota

[ad_1]

Wisconsin basketball (23-7, 13-6 Big Ten) received a significant boost from one of its stars in its 74-67 win over Minnesota (15-15, 7-12 Big Ten) on Wednesday.

Four days after finishing with a 16-point, six-rebound output in the Badgers’ 71-62 loss to Michigan State on Sunday, sophomore scoring machine John Blackwell dropped his second career double-double against the Golden Gophers.

In 37 minutes of action on Wednesday, Blackwell tallied a game-best 25 points and 11 rebounds off 8-of-21 shooting from the floor and 7-of-8 from the charity stripe. His offensive efforts piloted the Badgers’ scoring attack. His 11 rebounds also eclipsed his previous career mark — 10 vs. Washington on Feb. 25.

The Michigan native did a bulk of his damage in the first half. Blackwell scored 14 of his 25 points in the opening stanza, including five free throw makes. He, alongside star wing John Tonje and veteran center Steven Crowl, lifted UW to a six-point edge at the break.

The 6-foot-4 playmaker picked up right where he left off in the second half with four straight points to extend Wisconsin’s edge to 11. After the Golden Gophers orchestrated an 11-0 scoring surge to tie the contest at 46, Blackwell broke UW’s scoring drought with a pull-up three-point jumper. His next basket knotted the game at 55, before he finally put a pin in his performance with a late layup to ice Wisconsin’s win.

Wednesday’s outing marks the fourth game of the season in which Blackwell has scored at least 25 points, the first since Jan. 18 against USC. He’s now accountable for 15.5 points and 5.2 rebounds off 45.8% shooting from the field and 80.7% from the free throw line in 30 games this season.

Blackwell did notch his first career double-double on Feb. 25 against the Washington Huskies, a promising sign ahead of the 2025 Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament. While John Tonje remains the Badgers’ most potent offensive option, Blackwell has also scored in bursts at points throughout the season. Greg Gard’s crew will…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/john-blackwell-sets-career-best-144029245.html

Author : Badgers Wire

Publish date : 2025-03-06 14:40:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.