March 8, 2008

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EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern wasn't quite able to prevent No. 10 Wisconsin from winning the Big Ten regular season title outright Saturday afternoon, falling to the Badgers 65-52 at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Kevin Coble paced the Wildcats (8-21, 1-17) with 17 points, while Michael Thompson added 13 points and five assists. Brian Butch scored 20 points and matched his career-high with 14 rebounds for the Badgers (26-4, 16-2).

Northwestern hung right with Wisconsin in the opening half of play as it found itself down just one at 21-20 with 5:27 left on a layup by Thompson.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the Badgers clamped down defensively and held NU scoreless the remainder of the half while scoring the final eight points before the intermission to take a 29-20 advantage.

The Wildcats remained within striking distance down eight at 37-29 with 14:50 remaining before Wisconsin made its decisive run. Ten straight points by the visitors over a four-minute span extended their advantage to 18.

Northwestern went on a late 8-0 run, but it wasn't enough to prevent Wisconsin from claiming the conference title all to itself.

The Wildcats forced the Badgers into 16 turnovers. Wisconsin shot 48.9 percent (23-47) in the contest to 40.8 percent (20-49) for NU.

The contest marked the final home game in the careers of Jason Okrzesik, Jean-Marc Melchior and Tonjua Jones.

Northwestern will be the No. 11 seed for the Big Ten tournament and will face sixth-seeded Minnesota at 4 p.m. Central time Thursday in Indianapolis.