Big Ten Tournament 2015: Semifinals Scores, Championship Bracket and Schedule

The quality of the Big Ten has been on full display all season long, and it is once again the central focus of the college basketball world Saturday, as the semifinals of the conference tournament determine which teams will vie for the championship.

The Wisconsin Badgers and Maryland Terrapins have been atop the conference for much of the year, but there are no guarantees in the Big Ten due to an impressive amount of parity. With that in mind, both the Purdue Boilermakers and Michigan State Spartans set out to surprise their favored opponents and solidify their March Madness candidacies.

Here is a look at the Big Ten tournament semifinal results as well as a look ahead to Sunday's highly anticipated title game.

Semifinals Scores

Game	Team 1	Team 2	Score
1	Wisconsin	Purdue	71-51, Wisconsin
2	Maryland	Michigan State	62-58, Michigan State

Bracket (Courtesy of Big Ten Network on Twitter)

Championship Game Schedule

Date	Time (ET)	Team 1	Team 2	Watch
Sunday, March 15	3:30 p.m.	Wisconsin	Michigan State	CBS

Semifinals Recap

Wisconsin vs. Purdue

Although there were some dicey moments during the early part of the game, top-seeded Wisconsin ultimately found its rhythm and pulled away from Purdue Saturday, as the Badgers took down the Boilermakers 71-51 in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament.

On the heels of a tough win over Michigan in the quarterfinals Friday, Wisconsin once again seemed to struggle out of the gates. Purdue took the lead less than seven minutes into the game and stayed in control for the remainder of the first half.

The Boilermakers were clearly pumped up to take part in such a huge game, as it marked their deepest run in the Big Ten tournament in five years, according to Purdue Associate Sports Information Director Chris Forman:

Purdue played extremely well in the opening half, but there is no question that the Badgers were far from their best. As pointed out by Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin struggled to get anything going on either end of the floor:

The Badgers shot a disappointing 37 percent from the field in the first half, while Purdue hit at a 50 percent clip both overall and from three-point range.

Superstar forward Frank Kaminsky had just four points in the opening 20 minutes, as the Boilermakers managed to neutralize him and Wisconsin as a whole with their size, per Nick Brazzoni of The Badger Herald:

Wisconsin started to come on late in the half and even tied it at 30-30 with just over one minute remaining, but Purdue closed on a 5-0 run to take a 35-30 lead into the break.

According to Kyle Rowland of The Journal Gazette, it was punctuated by a buzzer-beating three from freshman guard P.J. Thompson:

Purdue was fortunate that Kaminsky knocked the ball away from center A.J. Hammons, only for it to end up in Thompson's hands and then through the hoop immediately after.

Wisconsin didn't let that misfortune get it down, though, as it came out firing to start the second half. After a jumper from Kaminsky and three-point make by Nigel Hayes, Bronson Koenig put the Badgers on top 38-35 with a trifecta of his own, per Scout.com's Benjamin Worgull:

The Badgers continued to extend their lead, and a major factor behind that was their flawless protection of the basketball, according to ESPN Stats & Info:

Purdue managed to pull back within two points of the lead with less than 11 minutes remaining at 46-44, but Wisconsin put together another spectacular run to rebuild its advantage.

An 11-0 run punctuated by a Sam Dekker dunk with just over seven minutes remaining put the Badgers ahead 57-44, at which point their best attributes started to rise to the surface, per Pete DiPrimio of The News-Sentinel:

According to Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com, the talent and execution of Wisconsin just proved to be too much for Purdue down the stretch:

It was reminiscent of Wisconsin finally finding its game against Michigan, and it was enough to give the Badgers another victory as well as a spot in the Big Ten tournament title game.

Wisconsin could potentially sew up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament by winning the tourney, but it may not be able to afford a slow start after recovering from them in back-to-back games.

Maryland vs. Michigan State

Michigan State has a penchant for playing its best when the games are most important, and that was the case Saturday, as the Spartans upset second-seeded Maryland 62-58 in the Big Ten tournament semifinals.

Much the opposite of favored Wisconsin in the early game, Maryland flexed its muscles in the first half against Michigan State by jumping out to a 12-1 lead in the first five minutes of play.

The Terrapins were certainly firing on all cylinders out of the gate, but they got plenty of help from the Spartans' poor shooting, just as they did late in Friday's quarterfinal clash with Indiana, according to Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post:

Michigan State was finally able to hit its first field goal of the game in the form of a Travis Trice trifecta to make it 12-4, but Maryland continued to apply the pressure.

Guard Melo Trimble answered with a three of his own shortly after Trice's make, which caused Joe Rexrode of The Detroit Free Press to criticize the lackadaisical defense of head coach Tom Izzo's team:

The Terps have relied heavily this season on contributions from freshmen such as Trimble and a host of others. Maryland made it this far with that strategy, and it didn't stray from it despite the importance of the game, per Maryland Basketball on Twitter:

After the Terrapins extended their lead to 23-11, the Spartans started to push back. Another Trice bucket from deep made it 25-20 in favor of Maryland with less than five minutes remaining in the half.

Maryland stretched the lead back to nine, but Trice came up big again to keep it within reach by nailing his third long-range bomb of the half. As seen in this graphic courtesy of ESPN Stats & Info, Trice and Branden Dawson combined for nearly all of Michigan State's offensive production in the opening 20 minutes:

That resulted in a 33-25 deficit at halftime, which could have been much worse considering how poorly the Spartans performed from the field.

Richaud Pack nailed a three-point shot for Maryland exactly one minute into the second half, but things started to go awry for the Terrapins after that.

The Spartans finally started to get some complementary production on offense from Matt Costello and Marvin Clark Jr., which led to a 10-0 scoring run to shrink Maryland's lead to 36-35.

Once Michigan State closed the gap, MLive.com's Josh Slagter quipped that the Terrapins are generally more comfortable in tight contests:

Things got nightmarish for Maryland with under 13 minutes remaining in the game, though, when Spartans guard Denzel Valentine put Michigan State on top 38-36 with a huge three-pointer.

According to Matt Charboneau The Detroit News, that basket whipped the Sparty contingent into a frenzy:

Michigan State's run extended to 15-0 at one point, but Maryland finally put an end to it when Evan Smotrycz hit from long distance to make it 40-39 in favor of the Spartans with less than 12 minutes left.

That shot not only stopped the bleeding but also seemed to shift the momentum back in Maryland's favor, as it regained the lead on the ensuing possession.

The next several minutes featured plenty of intense, back-and-forth action, as neither team held an advantage of more than three points.

With just over two minutes remaining in the contest, Michigan State extended its lead to four with a technical free throw and then put Maryland on the ropes in a big way when Dawson threw down an emphatic dunk.

That made it 56-50, and it pumped the crowd up to impressive levels as well, per Sean Merriman of BTN.com:

There was still some time left for Maryland to mount a comeback, but it was clear that Dawson's slam coupled with the Spartans' comeback left them reeling.

The Terps couldn't mount anything down the stretch, which means Michigan State will take on Wisconsin for Big Ten supremacy Sunday.

It wasn't a perfect performance out of Michigan State by any means, but the manner in which it was able to close out Maryland should give it a ton of confidence against the Badgers.

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