MINNEAPOLIS — Freshman John Blackwell scored 18 points, Steven Crowl added 17 points, and the pair made seven of Wisconsin’s season-high 16 3-pointers in an 87-56 rout of Maryland on Thursday in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.
Wisconsin (20-12) will play No. 4 seed Northwestern on Friday in the quarterfinals. The Badgers beat the Wildcats 71-63 on Jan. 13 in the lone regular-season meeting.
Wisconsin dominated the first half, hitting 10 3-pointers — in just 13 attempts — to build a 47-26 lead. It tied the Badgers’ second-most makes from 3-point range this season — in full-length games.
Wisconsin made its first six 3-pointers and, after a miss, Blackwell added another to make it 31-15 with nine minutes left. Blackwell made all four of his 3-point attempts in the first half and scored 14 points. AJ Storr and Crowl each added two 3-pointers, with Crowl scoring 14 points.
Crowl and Chucky Hepburn continued the hot shooting after halftime, making 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions during an 18-0 run to open the second half for a 39-point lead.
Maryland didn’t score in the second half until DeShawn Harris-Smith’s 3-pointer with 14:52 left. It was just Maryland’s third 3-pointer of the game.
Eight different Badgers made a 3-pointer - a game after the team went 5 of 24 from 3-point range in a 78-70 loss to No. 3 Purdue on Sunday.
Storr finished with 16 points for Wisconsin. The Badgers finished 16 of 25 from behind the arc and shot 52% overall.
Jahmir Young led Maryland (16-17) with 18 points. Harris-Smith added 16 and Julian Reese had 10.
Young scored 15 of Maryland’s 26 points in the first half after going 7 of 11 from the field, while the rest of his teammates were 5 of 17.
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