It started with indignation. 

John Groce refused to leave the court at the end of the first half, airing boisterous grievances to the referees at Assembly Hall on what he thought was a foul on Brandon Paul’s final shot of the half.

Groce was assessed a technical foul, which felt like a frustrating culmination to Illinois’ disappointing conference season so far, trailing to Wisconsin at home 33-24. 

But there was still a second half to be played, and Wisconsin guard Ben Brust missed the two technical free throw to begin the half. Instead, an Illini team that sorely needed a second-half ignition fell flat on its way to a 74-68 loss.

A maligned and ineffective defense reared its increasingly ugly head once again for Illinois. A Wisconsin offense that had not eclipsed 50 points in the past three games scored 74 points, mostly on easy looks close to the basket. The only other time Wisconsin scored more than 70 points in Big Ten play was in its earlier meeting against Illinois, when the Badgers scored 71 points in a blowout win.

“At some point, you can’t let it be acceptable to score the way they did,” said Nnanna Egwu, who scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds. “We make too many mistakes on the defensive end.”

Boosted by a home crowd of 15,073 fans, Illinois stayed even with Wisconsin for most of the first half, finding itself in a power position down 14-13 but with Wisconsin’s top scorer and second-leading rebounder, Jared Berggren, on the bench with foul trouble.

An unlikely Badger filled in for Berggren, though, and gave Illinois fits for most of the game. Frank Kaminsky, a Lisle, Ill., native who accumulated seven minutes of playing time in his five games previous games, amassed 19 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench.

Mired in a tailspin and looking for answers anywhere, Groce elected to bring his leading scorer, Paul, off the bench and started sophomore Joseph Bertrand. Paul responded with 13 points on a dismal shooting night that saw him miss 10 out of his 13 shots from the field.

“It means we’re accountable for all of our actions at the end of the day,” Egwu said while addressing Paul’s benching.

“I don’t think it really matter who starts anyway,” Bertrand said. “We have a lot of guys who can start the game. Different lineups work for different games.”

Bertrand didn’t contribute much in the first half but sprang into action in the second half, scoring 15 of his team-leading 17 points while trying to mount a comeback. His efforts were for naught, as Illinois could not make a stop on defense, allowing Wisconsin to shoot 55.6 percent from the field and 31 free throws after halftime.

The Badgers shot no free throws in their last game, a loss to Ohio State.

“Unfortunately, right now, I think our answer at times to playing hard or getting behind is to foul and be undisciplined,” Groce said.

Groce, in the wake of watching his team lose six out of its last seven games, struggled to fathom his team’s utter lack of defense entering the pivotal month of February,

“We’ve been doing the same thing since Oct. 12,” Groce said. “That’s the disappointing part. I’ll be honest with you, they got to trust one another more that they’re going to be there for one another defensively. You can’t be on five different islands on defense.”

Thomas can be reached at [email protected] and @ThomasBruch.