Feb. 11, 1998

Northwestern Men Defeat Wisconsin, 47-39

Eschmeyer Scores 26 in the Win

EVANSTON, Ill. -- The Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team scored their second Big Ten win of the season, defeating the Wisconsin Badgers, 47-39. All-America candidate Evan Eschmeyer led all players with 26 points and 10 rebounds. The Wildcats improved their record to 9-12 overall (2-9 Big Ten), the Badgers dropped to 10-14 (3-9 Big Ten).

The 'Cats held the lead throughout the game and led 22-13 at the half. Wisconsin's 13 points tied a Welsh-Ryan Arena record for fewest points in a half. The Badgers pulled to within four points, 43-39, with 1:50 left in the game, but a lay-up by Northwestern's Julian Bonner sealed the win.

Sean Wink contributed 13 points to the NU victory, hitting 4 three-pointers, and Julian Bonner dished a game-high five assists. Mark Vershaw had a team-high nine points for Wisconsin.

The Wildcats travel to Indiana on Saturday.

on the game- "I am obviously disappointed at how we shot at the foul line, however, I am happy with how we played."

"You saw two teams tonight that were pretty bad on offense tonight."

on Julian Bonner- "I thought he did a great job of handling the ball and defensively."

on the season so far- ""It's a process to come from where we're coming from to go where we want to go."

"Our team has done a much better job of playing opponents the last few weeks."

on the game- "I though we were a step slow. They did a great job executing. I think they executed their high/low better than we executed defensively."

"We were awful, they played good defense. We are simply unable to find people to score."

on Eschmeyer- "Well he's certainly one of the best, maybe the best. I like Esch better than the kid from Pacific. He's pretty high on my list."