John Blackwell's potential game-tying shot was blocked with 9 seconds to play and the Badgers suffered an 85-83 loss at UCLA on Tuesday night.

Despite dropping a nail-biter to UCLA on Tuesday, the Wisconsin Badgers rose four spots in ESPN’s updated Basketball Power Index. While the Badgers remained at No. 21 in the most recent KenPom hierarchy,

The Badgers actually received a boost just before the UCLA loss, as Ohio State won on the road at Purdue and jumped to No. 30 in the NET. That pushed the Badgers’ recent home victory over the Buckeyes back into the Quad 1 category.

Specifically, UCLA shot 14-of-20 from two-point range in the second half. A bulk of the Bruins’ paint scoring arrived from the aforementioned Mara and bench guard Sebastian Mack. The Badgers had no answer. Wisconsin shot extremely well from the outside, but UCLA’s consistence presence down low was devastating on Tuesday.

Wisconsin basketball saw its red-hot momentum finally come to a halt on Tuesday. It fell to UCLA 85-83, snapping a seven-game winning streak and 5-0 streak in conference play.

The Wisconsin Badgers seven-game winning streak came to a halt in Pauley Pavilion as the UCLA Bruins rode a strong second half to win 85-83. The Bruins’ 7’ 3” Spanish center, Aday Mara, was the MVP of the game with a career-high 22 points on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting night.