It was no secret to Mick Cronin that Wisconsin’s 3-point shooting, led by John Tonje, would be an area of emphasis Friday when UCLA opened the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament.

After all, the Badgers made 15 of them in a narrow Bruins comeback victory at Pauley Pavilion in January.

There would be no withstanding a similar shooting performance and now Cronin has his wish after downplaying the importance of conference tournaments, as his team will now be resting before learning its NCAA tournament fate Sunday.

UCLA allowed a Big Ten tournament record-tying 19 made 3-pointers, including a 6 of 6 performance from Tonje, in an 86-70 quarterfinal loss at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The Bruins (22-10), who were led by reserve guard Sebastian Mack’s 18 points, shot an identical percentage in both halves and finished just 32.4% (22 of 68) from field.

Wisconsin (25-8) will play top-seeded Michigan State (27-5) in Saturday’s semifinals at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Both semifinals will air on CBS.

The Badgers tied the tournament record for made 3-pointers set by Iowa in 2022.

Tonje, the unanimous all-conference first-team selection who was 9 of 10 from the field, led four double-figure scorers with 26 points. All-conference honorable mention standout John Blackwell added four 3-pointers and finished with 18 points.

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The Badgers made their first four 3-point shots and never let up en route to a 48-29 halftime lead.

The Bruins fell behind by 13 after making just one of 10 shots during a stretch late in the half.

While UCLA guard Kobe Johnson answered with a 3-pointer to snap that funk, Wisconsin countered with consecutive long-range baskets from Steven Crowl and Xavier Amos to ignite a 12-4 run.

Crowl and Kamari McGee bookended the spurt with two more 3-pointers to push the advantage to 45-27 with 2:24 left in the half.

For the half, the Badgers made more 3-pointers (12) than the Bruins had made shots from the field (10).

There would be no serious second-half push from UCLA, which appeared to avoid disaster.

With 11:21 remaining, Bruins reserve center Aday Mara appeared to roll his left ankle after stepping on Crowl’s foot while jockeying for position to gather a rebound.

The Big Ten broadcast later said Mara returned to the bench after he was shown limping back to the locker room.

Mack’s microwave scoring ability was about the only thing working for the Bruins before fouling out.

Only Johnson joined him in double figures with 14 points, but for much of the contest Mack was alone in that regard.

Before the contest, Cronin told Big Ten Network that Tonje and Blackwell were the two priorities in the scouting report.

Instead, UCLA was often left scrambling to identify open shooters and inexplicably continued to collapse on Crowl in the post and leave others open.

It starts with the Badgers’ outside shooting. Six different Wisconsin players made a 3-pointer.

The Bruins, though, never matched the firepower with their own key performers. Wing Eric Dailey Jr., in particular, was scoreless in six shot attempts over just 15 minutes.

Mara, who had a career-high 22 points in the first meeting with Wisconsin, was a nonfactor with four points and seven rebounds in 11 minutes.