Shelstad sends game to OT with a deep 3 as Oregon pulls out a 77-73 win vs. No. 11 Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — — Nate Bittle had 23 points and Jackson Shelstad made a desperation 3 to force overtime as Oregon beat No. 11 Wisconsin 77-73 on Saturday.
Bittle, a 7-foot center, scored six points in overtime to help snap Wisconsin’s five-game winning streak. Shelstad scored 13 points as the Ducks (20-8, 9-8 Big Ten) extended their winning streak to four games.
Bittle played limited minutes in the first half with three fouls.
John Tonje had 22 points for Wisconsin (21-6, 11-5). Steve Crowl scored 12.
The Badgers have only lost two home games this season.
Shelsted hit his game-tying shot with 12 seconds left in regulation from several feet behind the 3-point arc. Wisconsin’s Max Klesmit missed a jumper to send the game to overtime tied at 66.
Takeaways
Oregon: The Ducks’ depth made a difference with 21 points off the bench. Reserves Jadrian Tracey and Kwame Evans Jr. scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Wisconsin: Tonje scored 16 first-half points on 6-of-10 shooting and had three rebounds, two assists and one steal during the final 8:42 of the first half to put Wisconsin in control. He has been great for the Badgers this season, averaging 19.6 points and 4.8 rebounds.
Key moment
Wisconsin had a costly, unforced error that led to Shelsted’s scoring opportunity. With 17 seconds left, the Badgers’ inbound pass to John Blackwell hit off his knee and went out of bounds.
Key stat
Wisconsin had a season-high 17 turnovers in the loss. Crowl had six of them. Oregon turned it over just eight times.
Up next
Wisconsin hosts Washington on Tuesday night. Oregon hosts Southern California next Saturday.
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Game Information
2024-25 Big Ten Conference Standings
Men’s College Basketball News
| 1 | 2 | OT | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORE | 26 | 40 | 11 | 77 |
| WIS | 38 | 28 | 7 | 73 |
| Team | CONF | GB | OVR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State | 13-3 | – | 22-5 |
| Michigan | 12-3 | 0.5 | 20-6 |
| Maryland | 11-5 | 2 | 21-6 |
| Wisconsin | 11-5 | 2 | 21-6 |
| Purdue | 11-5 | 2 | 19-8 |
| UCLA | 10-6 | 3 | 19-8 |
| Oregon | 9-8 | 4.5 | 20-8 |
| Illinois | 9-8 | 4.5 | 17-10 |
| Nebraska | 7-9 | 6 | 17-10 |
| Ohio State | 7-9 | 6 | 15-12 |
| Indiana | 6-9 | 6.5 | 15-11 |
| USC | 6-9 | 6.5 | 14-12 |
| Minnesota | 6-10 | 7 | 14-13 |
| Rutgers | 6-10 | 7 | 13-14 |
| Iowa | 5-10 | 7.5 | 14-12 |
| Northwestern | 5-11 | 8 | 14-13 |
| Penn State | 5-12 | 8.5 | 15-13 |
| Washington | 4-11 | 8.5 | 13-13 |
Nate Bittle, Oregon men’s basketball erase 17-point deficit to upset No. 11 Wisconsin
Oregon center Nate Bittle (32) dribbles the ball against Wisconsin forward Steven Crowl, right, during overtime of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)AP
Down 15 with 7:57 to go in regulation, Oregon mounted a furious comeback and upset No. 11 Wisconsin for one of its best wins of the season.
Nate Bittle scored 18 of his 23 points and all six of his rebounds after halftime as the Ducks beat the Badgers 77-73 in overtime Saturday afternoon at Kohl Center.
Oregon (20-8, 9-8 Big Ten) trailed by as much as 17 in the first half and was behind for over 31 minutes from midway through the first half until overtime. It was the biggest deficit overcome by UO since an 18-point gap at Cal on Jan. 13, 2024.
“Showed a lot of character,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said on postgame radio. “Our defense really picked up the second half. We had 17 points off their turnovers the second half and overtime and that was the difference. We picked it up. The press hurt them a little bit; a little bit of zone hurt them, threw them off their rhythm just a little bit.
“Finally threw that ball inside to Nate. We got to get that ball inside; play inside-out. When we did that we got really good looks. Really good effort. Can’t tell you how proud I am of them. This is a packed house. They’re celebrating a Final Four team. Down 17 it takes a lot of character to man up and come back.”
John Tonje scored 16 of his 22 points in the first half for Wisconsin (21-6, 11-5), which committed a season-high 17 turnovers, including 11 in the second half. It led to a 24-12 UO advantage in points off turnovers.
Keeshawn Barthelemy scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half, Jackson Shelstad had 13, Jadrian Tracey scored 11 and Kwame Evans Jr. had 10 points and nine rebounds for Oregon.
“Nate and Jackson carried us but Keeshawn hit some big shots and really did a nice job hitting a couple of big ones there in the second half to get us close,” Altman said. “When (Evans) plays and just goes to the boards he’s just a different player. Tremendous effort.”
Bittle was 9 of 17 from the field, including 1 of 2 from three, and 4 of 5 from the free throw line. The Ducks center made a pair of jumpers — both of Oregon’s baskets in overtime — and made two free throws to put UO ahead with 1:36 to go.
“He really came back and had a tremendous second half,” Altman said. “When we play though him we’re a much better team. The first half he didn’t get in there, we didn’t play through him and that’s why our offense struggled.
“He contested shots without fouling (in the second half), had hand activity without fouling. I was very pleased with his effort that second half.”
Tonje was 9 of 20 from the field, including 2 of 10 from three. He missed his final three attempts, all from behind the arc.
The late comeback was in stark contrast to the first half, when Oregon’s starters combined for four rebounds, three by Shelstad, and Bittle had three fouls.
Shelstad was 5 of 14 from the field, including 3 of 5 from three. After Wisconsin turned it over off an in-bounds pass, Shelstad made the game-tying three with 13.2 to go in regulation.
Steven Crowl had 12 points and six rebounds and Nolan Winter had 11 points for Wisconsin, which went from dominating the paint 26-12 in the first half to just a 40-38 edge for the game.
The stunning comeback is a massive resume enhancer for Oregon, which entered the day No. 34 in NET. The Ducks improve to 9-6 in Quadrant 1 games after their second-best win of the season.
UO moves into a tie for 7th in the Big Ten standings with three games remaining in the regular season, 1.5 games ahead of Ohio State and Nebraska, which play on Sunday and Monday, respectively.
It also marks the 15th straight 20-win season for Oregon under Altman — his entire tenure at UO.
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3 quick takeaways from the Badgers 77-73 loss to Oregon: Wisconsin suffers ugly second-half collapse
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The Badgers had an ugly collapse at home to snap a five-game winning streak.
On a five-game winning streak, the Wisconsin Badgers suffered an ugly collapse in the second half, dropping a 77-73 loss in overtime at the Kohl Center on Saturday, putting a major blow to their Big Ten Championship hopes.
It was a slower start for the Badgers in a back-and-forth affair with the Ducks, but a surge midway through the first half created a double-digit lead. Oregon made a major comeback in the second half, cutting a 17-point lead to force overtime with a rapid push in the final minutes, leading to the nail-biting finish.
Then, in overtime, the Ducks relied on center Nate Bittle and the Badgers had no answer, struggling to put together success on the offensive end.
With the loss, Wisconsin dropped to 21-6 on the season and 11-5 in conference play, falling to fifth in the Big Ten standings behind the Maryland Terrapins.
Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s 77-73 overtime loss to the Oregon Ducks on Saturday.
Coming into Saturday, the Badgers were seen as 8.5-point favorites over the Ducks. Still, some viewed the game as a potential ‘trap’ game, given that Oregon was coming in on a three-game winning streak and had shifty guards such as Jackson Shelstad that could give Wisconsin some problems.
Well, it was a competitive battle over the first eight minutes, as Wisconsin saw success inside, but couldn’t get any of their triples to fall, while Oregon had three threes in the early minutes to get them out to a 17-14 lead with 11:15 to go in the period.
From there, though, Wisconsin dominated the half, going on a 24-4 run, which was what they had in the first half of their home win over the Indiana Hoosiers, taking a 38-21 lead with two minutes left in the period.
It was a dominant stretch from the Badgers, who saw success in a number of different areas on the court. As expected, star guard John Tonje led the way with 16 of those 24 points, scoring 13 straight at one point to ignite the spark for Wisconsin.
The Badgers have played strong complementary basketball throughout the season. But, it’s runs like these that end up separating them from their opponents.
The impressiveness of that first-half run made the second-half collapse even more of a struggle, as the Badgers seemed to have all the momentum going into halftime and couldn’t capitalize on the stretch at home.
As the Ducks slowly chipped at the Badgers lead in the second half, Wisconsin sputtered offensively, as they couldn’t put together the type of run that they had in the first half.
But, the true collapse came over the final five minutes, where Wisconsin struggled to break Oregon’s full-court press, while also turning the ball over in the half-court.
Wisconsin held a 62-47 lead with just under eight minutes to go. That was cut to seven points within the final five minutes, and disaster started to strike.
The Badgers had six turnovers over the final 4:45, with center Steven Crowl committing three, and they really struggled to close out the game over the final minute. Normally, this is a situation that Wisconsin would like to end in, as their strong free throw shooting has closed out close games a couple of times this season.
But, the Badgers never got to those free-throw shooting moments, turning the ball over four times in the final two minutes, and the Ducks took advantage with two three-pointers, including the game-tying shot from Jackson Shelstad with 12 seconds remaining.
This collapse is one that isn’t expected by a veteran-laden Wisconsin team filled with experience and ball-handling. But, that was the outcome on Saturday, and the Badgers sputtered at the worst time, failing to recover after that.
Looking back at the first half, while three-pointers weren’t falling at their usual rate for the Badgers, Wisconsin saw success when putting the ball in the hands of John Tonje and Steven Crowl.
Tonje worked well going downhill, going 4/5 inside the arc, while hitting both of his free throws en route to a 16-point first half.
And Steven Crowl won the battle against Nate Bittle, getting 10 first-half points while also going 4/5 inside the arc. Crowl forced three fouls against Bittle in the period, limiting Oregon to just seven minutes in the period.
However, the Badgers shied away from that in the second half, not setting Crowl much in the post to give him opportunities against Bittle. And that proved costly.
Not only could Wisconsin not get much rhythm offensively as Crowl had just two shot attempts in the period, but Bittle really started to get going offensively, scoring 12 second-half points before getting six of Oregon’s 11 in overtime.
The Badgers needed to keep the Ducks center in foul trouble. While they had a couple of dribble drives from the guards that didn’t fall, they didn’t ride the hot hand with Crowl and that proved costly, especially early in the period, as Bittle got into a rhythm and took over the game for Oregon.
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