Wisconsin

Briana Weiss hit three three-pointers in the second half to lead Villanova past Wisconsin, 60-54, in a Women's NIT game last night. Stacie Witman scored 17 points and Laura Kurz finished with 15. The Wildcats (17-15) will meet the winner of tomorrow night's Colorado-Gonzaga game on Thursday. If Gonzaga (25-8) wins, the game will be at Villanova. If Colorado (16-14) wins, the Buffaloes will play host.

Downingtown's Bryn Boggs, an Inquirer first-team all-area football selection this past season, has made an oral commitment to Wisconsin. Although Boggs, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound running back/defensive back, rushed for more than 1,000 yards this past season and 2,773 in his career, Badgers coach Barry Alvarez plans to use him as a cornerback, Downingtown coach John Barr said. Boggs, who helped lead the Whippets to the Class AAAA state championship game this past season, also made visits to Clemson, West Virginia and Georgia Tech before deciding Monday on Wisconsin.

Woodbury fullback/linebacker Chris Pressley has made an oral commitment to attend Wisconsin, Woodbury coach Zack Valentine said. "He felt comfortable with his visit and with the academics," Valentine said. Pressley, a bruising 6-foot-1, 258-pound senior who rushed for 1,590 yards last fall and was a second-team all-South Jersey selection, carries a 94 average in class and plans to major in business law, Valentine said. Pressley, who was recruited as a running back, is built like Overbrook High graduate Ron Dayne, who went to Wisconsin and won the Heisman Trophy in 1999 and is now with the New York Giants.

Jerry Butler, a lightning-quick running back from George Washington High, needed only one official recruiting visit to make up his mind. Butler, clocked at 4.19 seconds in the 40-yard dash, has made an oral commitment to play football for the University of Wisconsin. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound senior visited the school over the weekend and committed to Badgers coach Barry Alvarez before returning home Sunday. Football recruits cannot sign binding national letters of intent until Feb. 2. "It just felt like I really fit in there," Butler said.

Penn and Wisconsin had waged the battle of the afternoon in the final race of the day at the 87th annual Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships on Onondaga Lake yesterday, but as the crews of the varsity eights collapsed in their shells, no one was certain who had won. "It was five strokes (remaining) at the most when we pulled even," said Andrew Goldberg, the coxswain in Penn's boat. "I didn't know who won. I really didn't know. Wisconsin didn't know either. " As it turned out, the Quakers' dramatic charge had given them a victory by two-tenths of a second, as they finished in 5:56.

PASADENA, Calif. - Although Stanford didn't score many style points in the 99th Rose Bowl, the Cardinal could celebrate because it didn't let Wisconsin score any points at all after halftime. Kelsey Young and Stepfan Taylor ran for first-quarter touchdowns, Kevin Hogan passed for 123 yards, and No. 8 Stanford won its first Rose Bowl since 1972, beating the Badgers, 20-14, on Tuesday night. Jordan Williamson kicked two field goals for Stanford, including a 47-yarder that gave the Cardinal a 17-7 second-quarter lead.

BOSTON - Just off the TD Garden court, Scoop Jardine put his head against his father, both rubbing the back of the other's head, smiling and loving the moment. "I really want to cry, but I'm going to hold it in," the Syracuse point guard told his father, Tony. Jardine had just experienced what had to be the biggest victory of his collegiate career, and by a razor's edge avoided it being the last game of his career. The Orange are into the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time in nine years because they forced a tough last shot out of a hot team, getting past Wisconsin, 64-63, in a thriller that saw the losers make 14 three-pointers, including six in a row in the second half.

Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis yesterday regained the upper hand in the tight Democratic race with a solid win over Jesse Jackson in the Wisconsin primary. Sens. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee and Paul Simon of Illinois trailed far behind, and the results further weakened their candidacies. Gore, after a strong showing in the Super Tuesday voting last month, failed again to win outside the border states, nor did he reach the threshold for continued matching federal funds.

At his weekly meeting with members of the media yesterday, Temple football coach Bobby Wallace pointed out a couple of positives to take from the Owls' 63-16 loss at No. 20 Arizona State on Thursday. It was the first game of the season for both teams. "The score looks horrible, and I'm embarrassed about it, but not about how we played at times," Wallace said. "It's not like they toyed with us or manhandled us. We're playing a top 20 football team at their place, and I think for a quarter and a half, we played well.

This time, the homecourt advantage wasn't enough. Top-ranked Illinois ended Wisconsin's 38-game home winning streak, the nation's longest, beating the Badgers, 75-65, last night by scoring 14 of the game's final 15 points. Led by Luther Head's 18 points, Illinois (20-0, 6-0 Big Ten) snapped a five-game losing streak in Madison and became the first team to beat the Badgers at the Kohl Center since Wake Forest on Dec. 4, 2002. The 18th-ranked Badgers (13-4, 4-2), who led by eight points midway through the second half, fell to 53-3 at home under coach Bo Ryan, including 26-1 in the Big Ten. The Badgers' most recent home win came when they scored the final 11 points of the game to beat Michigan State, 62-59.

A SECOND complaint has been lodged against the Wisconsin-Green Bay men's basketball coach Brian Wardle , this one alleging verbal abuse and bullying. Gina Cougill , the mother of senior forward Brennan Cougill , wrote to university chancellor Thomas Harden last week, shortly after the parents of former center Ryan Bross filed the initial complaint against Wardle. Gina Cougill provided a copy of her letter to the Green Bay Press-Gazette . In it, she accused Wardle of minimizing her son's clinical depression as a "distraction," and said other players have been subjected to worse treatment.

It turns out there is someone who can tone down the taunting and irreverent antics Marshall Henderson is becoming known for. His name is Marshall Henderson. Mississippi's flamboyant guard missed 12 of his first 13 shots and was 0-for-6 from three-point range Friday when he finally connected for a long three-pointer in a second-round NCAA game against fifth-seeded Wisconsin. Then, he remained unusually businesslike while scoring the rest of his 19 points and leading the 12th-seeded Rebels to a 57-46 victory in Kansas City.

DAYTON, Ohio - Freshman Georges Niang matched a season high with 19 points, and Iowa State, showing it can do much more than just fire away from outside the three-point line, dismantled Notre Dame, 76-58, on Friday night in the NCAA tournament in Dayton, Ohio. The 10th-seeded Cyclones (23-11) will play No. 2 seed Ohio State on Sunday. The Buckeyes advanced with a 95-70 thrashing of Iona. Iowa State led the nation in three-pointers this season, but the Cyclones were just as effective from short range in ousting the Fighting Irish (25-10)

D.J. Byrd scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half and the Boilermakers upset the No. 17 Badgers in Madison, Wis. Terone Johnson added 16 points for the Boilermakers (14-15, 7-9 Big Ten), who had lost three straight road games and four of five overall. Purdue took control with a 21-3 run in the second half during which Byrd had nine points and Johnson eight. Jared Berggren scored 13 points and Ryan Evans and Sam Dekker had 10 apiece for the Badgers (20-9, 11-5), who had won six of their previous seven.

WISCONSIN CAN be awfully good when it is making shots. Ohio State found that out Sunday. The 20th-ranked Badgers shot 53 percent from the field, their best performance of the season, to rout No. 13 Ohio State, 71-49, in Madison, Wis. "The guys got good looks, and they went down," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "They didn't change anything. I'd like to say we did, that we found something. " It was a dramatic turnaround offensively for Wisconsin (18-8, 9-4 Big Ten) after Thursday, when the Badgers went scoreless over the final 5 minutes in regulation and then managed just four points in overtime while losing at Minnesota.

ANDRE HOLLINS had a talk with the boss. Over lunch, coach Tubby Smith reminded his streaky sophomore point guard which shots the Gophers want and how they need him to run their offense. One day later, Hollins made clear he was listening. Hollins hit the go-ahead three-pointer midway through overtime to finish with 21 points and lead host Minnesota to a 58-53 victory over No. 20 Wisconsin on Thursday night. "He's asked to do a lot. Handle the ball. Score for us. Defending the opposing team's quickest player, usually," Smith said.

Morgan Paige scored a career-high 33 points to lead Wisconsin to a 63-61 upset of seventh-ranked Penn State in the Big Ten Conference on Thursday night in Madison, Wis. Tiera Stephens scored the game-winner on a putback with five seconds remaining to end the Nittany Lions' 12-game winning streak. Maggie Lucas, a former Germantown Academy star, scored 18 points for Penn State (17-3, 7-1 Big Ten). The Badgers (10-11, 2-6) went into the game having lost seven of their last eight games.

Deshaun Thomas scored 25 points, including 10 during a game-breaking 15-0 second-half run, to lead No. 11 Ohio State past Wisconsin, 58-49, on Tuesday night in Columbus, Ohio. The leading scorer in the Big Ten, Thomas took over the game as both teams tried to gain leverage in a typically physical matchup between them. The victory moved Ohio State (16-4, 6-2 Big Ten) into third place in the Big Ten and dropped Wisconsin (14-7, 5-3) two games off the pace set by coleaders Indiana and Michigan (6-1)

WISCONSIN IS getting hot at the right time. Ryan Evans had 13 points and seven rebounds, and Traevon Jackson added 11 points as the visiting Badgers upset No. 2 Indiana, 64-59, on Tuesday night to take sole possession of the Big Ten lead. Wisconsin (13-4, 4-0) has won seven straight and beaten two Top 15 opponents in 4 days. The Badgers now have 11 straight wins over the Hoosiers and five straight in Bloomington. Cody Zeller scored 18 of his 21 points in the first half to lead Indiana (15-2, 3-1)

PASADENA, Calif. - Although Stanford didn't score many style points in the 99th Rose Bowl, the Cardinal could celebrate because it didn't let Wisconsin score any points at all after halftime. Kelsey Young and Stepfan Taylor ran for first-quarter touchdowns, Kevin Hogan passed for 123 yards, and No. 8 Stanford won its first Rose Bowl since 1972, beating the Badgers, 20-14, on Tuesday night. Jordan Williamson kicked two field goals for Stanford, including a 47-yarder that gave the Cardinal a 17-7 second-quarter lead.