Chucky Hepburn capped a 17-point game with a steal and layup with 10.5 seconds to play to secure Wisconsin’s 64-59 win over USC in the Battle for Atlantis third-place game Friday.
The Badgers closed the game with a 10-2 run, six points coming from Hepburn.
Both teams were coming off overtime losses to ranked teams in the semifinals and played another nail-biter. There were seven ties and 10 lead changes, with USC’s largest lead being seven points and Wisconsin’s five.
Both teams also had eight-point runs, but Wisconsin’s came within the last five minutes after Drew Peterson’s three-pointer put USC ahead 57-54 with 5:42 to play. Tyler Wahl and Hepburn alternated baskets in the game-changing run as the Trojans went scoreless for 4:52 and missed eight straight shots.
Boogie Ellis ended the drought with 50 seconds to go, and after a miss by Hepburn coming out of a timeout, Hepburn picked Peterson’s pocket near the top of the key and went down and iced the game with a pump-fake layup.
Wahl scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Badgers (5-1), who face Wake Forest on Tuesday in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Conner Essegian had four three-pointers and 12 points off the bench. Wisconsin’s three games in the Bahamas were decided by one, one and five points.
Peterson went five for six behind the three-point arc and scored 17 points and added 10 rebounds. Ellis, the top scorer for USC (4-3) at 18.5 points per game, finished with 15 points, but he had only two in the second half. The Trojans open Pac-12 Conference play at California on Wednesday.
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