Badgers Win Big Ten Regular Season Title

Brian Butch scored 20 points and matched his career-high with 14 rebounds as No. 10 Wisconsin clinched the Big Ten regular-season title Saturday, using a strong second half to beat Northwestern 65-52.

Jason Bohannon added 15 points, and Marcus Landry scored eight straight during a 10-0 second-half run to help Wisconsin (26-4, 16-2) pull away.

The Badgers, who had already wrapped up at least a share of the title three days ago, will be the No. 1 seed in next week's Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.

It was the second outright regular-season title in coach Bo Ryan's seven seasons at Wisconsin. The Badgers shared it one other time during his highly successful run.

Kevin Coble had 17 points for Northwestern (8-21, 1-17).

Welsh-Ryan Arena was jammed to the rafters, many of the fans noisy, red-clad Badgers boosters who made the relatively short trip to Chicago's north suburbs.

The Badgers entered the game with the nation's toughest scoring defense, allowing only 54.4 points per outing and they made sure the Wildcats _ who played a nice first half _ didn't get there.

And with the 6-foot-11 Butch leading the way, the Badgers dominated the boards 38-21 against the smaller Wildcats.

Northwestern bothered the Badgers for most of the first half with a tight defense and used its deliberate pick-and-cut offense to stay close with several backdoor baskets.

But Bohannon banked in a shot at the first-half buzzer _ Northwestern coach Bill Carmody pleaded for traveling _ to cap an 8-0 run and put the Badgers up 29-20. Northwestern went scoreless over the final 5:27 of the half.

Butch had 11 points and Bohannon added nine in the first half and Butch's eight rebounds helped Wisconsin dominate the boards 21-9.

Ryan railed at numerous calls in the first half and showed early he was in no mood for mistakes. When Trevon Hughes turned the ball over on Wisconsin's first possession, Ryan yanked his starting guard 13 seconds into the game.

In the second half, moments after he took exception to a hard foul from Northwestern's Ivan Peljusic, Butch took a nifty pass from Joe Krabbenhoft for a layup, was fouled and converted the three-point play. That put the Badgers up 10 with about 15 minutes to go.

Landry hit a 3-pointer and then took a high pass for a layup. He was fouled after the basket and when the Badgers retained possession, Landry hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key. His personal eight-point run put Wisconsin up 45-29.