Washington keeps it close but can't overcome Wisconsin in Big Ten Tournament

Percy Allen, The Seattle Times on Mar 12, 2026

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Down 18 points with 13 minutes left, it must have felt like déjà vu for the never-say-die Washington Huskies, who overcame a 13-point deficit 24 hours earlier to survive and advance in their first Big Ten Tournament appearance.

“We were just never out of it,” sophomore guard Zoom Diallo said. “It’s not over until it’s triple zeros. We just played a game yesterday, were down 13 and 18 is not that much (more).”

Twice in the final 67 seconds, the No. 12-seed Washington men’s basketball team closed to a point of No. 5-seed Wisconsin and had a chance to force overtime at the end.

Diallo’s game-tying 3-point attempt rolled off the rim as time expired and the Huskies lost, 85-82, in the third round Thursday at the United Center in Chicago.

“It doesn’t surprise me how we responded to being down 18 to one of the hottest teams in the country, not just the Big Ten,” UW coach Danny Sprinkle said. “To give ourselves a chance, down to the last five seconds, to still win the game was really impressive of our team.”

It’s unclear if Washington (16-17) will receive a bid to the NIT or the second-year College Basketball Crown tournament, but the Huskies aren’t ready for the season to end.

“That’s another step for our program, to go compete in a postseason tournament,” Sprinkle said. “You look at what it did for Nebraska last year. I imagine that fed their offseason, and they had a tremendous year. So hopefully, something like that can happen for us in our program because our players deserve it.”

After capturing a thrilling 83-79 overtime victory against USC on Wednesday, the Huskies came out flat and trailed 43-33 at halftime Thursday. It was reminiscent of their previous game when they were down 40-33 at the break and 57-44 with 13:07 left.

Against Wisconsin, Washington was down 66-48 with 13:23 left before making another second-half run, which has been its trademark in many games this season.

“When we started pressing them a little bit, we started to see they were getting a little worried, just starting to turn the ball over and starting to be passive with their decisions,” Diallo said. “We saw that real early, and we wanted to take advantage of it. Their energy started to change when we started to get real aggressive with them, and we just decided to take advantage of that.”

Led by standout freshman forward Hannes Steinbach (25 points and 16 rebounds), Diallo (24 points, four rebounds and seven assists) and Quimari Peterson (14 points, six rebounds and four assists), the Huskies used a 32-15 run during a game-swinging 12-minute stretch.

At the end, the Huskies relied heavily on Diallo, who made one of two free throws to close the score to 81-80 with 1:07 left.

On UW’s next offensive trip, he converted a layup to close it to 83-82.

With UW down 85-82 with 8.3 seconds left, Wisconsin used its final timeout, which allowed the Huskies to draw up a play for Diallo. He dribbled the length of the court and pulled up at the top of the key for a 3-pointer that missed the mark.

Washington shot 44.1% from the field and outrebounded Wisconsin 45-29, but the Huskies couldn’t contain Badgers guards John Blackwell and Nick Boyd, who scored a game-high 34 points — the third most in tournament history — and 23 points, respectively.

They combined to connect on 11 of 18 3-point attempts for Wisconsin (23-9), which plays No. 4-seed Illinois in the quarterfinals Friday.

“When they’re knocking down shots like that, whether it’s man or whether it’s zone, there’s not much you can do,” Sprinkle said. “They took 18 shots combined and they made 11 of them.

“We had our hands in their face quite a bit. That’s why I think they might be the best backcourt in America. They really might be. And when they get going like that, and playing off each other, and some of those other guys start making threes, they’re really hard to guard.”

Note

Steinbach extended his Big Ten freshman record to 22 double-doubles — one shy of the UW record of 23 set by Jon Brockman during the 2007-08 season.