Michigan State outlasts Wisconsin in B1G quarters

“It’s a credit to these guys to my right and also the guys back in the locker room, how they’ve grown over the last month”, Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. Turgeon called out for guard Anthony Cowan Jr. on the other side of the court – but before the play could materialize, Wiley had his pass intercepted by Wisconsin forward Khalil Iverson.

Mo Wagner picked up his seventh double-double for UM as he finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds.

With AP Photos.Cassius Winston hit a go-ahead jumper with 7:17 to play and No. 2 Michigan State won its 13th straight game, beating Wisconsin 63-60 in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. The Wolverines will be back at the Garden Saturday to take on Michigan State in the Big Ten semifinals. After that loss, MI won eight of its final 10 regular-season games and topped No. 12 seed Iowa 77-71 in its tourney opener Thursday.

When they returned to the Barclays Center for the 2014 Legends Classic, the Wolverines topped OR before falling to No. 12 Villanova in a game MI led with 20 seconds left. Friday, while Happ finished with a game-high 22 points and added five rebounds, Davison was trusted to make the most important play of UW’s season.

The Big Ten Tournament didn’t get off to a great start for Tom Izzo and No. 2 Michigan State. That ended any chance of Maryland (19-13) making a fourth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.

Wisconsin (15-17) dictated the pace from the onset Thursday, lulling Maryland to sleep with long and methodical possessions in the first half.

Even the tumultuous 2015-16 season featured a trip to NY, as MI and Penn State played one of their regular-season matchups at Madison Square Garden.

The Spartans won both meetings this season with the Badgers, including a 68-63 road triumph in the regular-season finale.

Gard said he and his staff have never talked about keeping that streak alive.

“I personally figure we just have to string together an entire game for 40 minutes and just staying toe to toe with them like we did last game”, Iverson said. “All the way back to 2001, we’ve never talked about how we’ve been to the tournament five years, 10 years in a row or whatever the case may be”.

But winning the regular-season championship hasn’t always guaranteed success in the conference tournament. The win boosted MI to No. 8 in the Pairwise rankings, which are what the NCAA tournament selection committee uses to determine who makes the NCAA Tournament. “So we know we’ll have to play really, really well”. “In terms of what they ran and type of players and the scouting report, we had that down”.

What’d we learn from Michigan State’s third win over Wisconsin this year? “That’s one of their pillars”.

Best shot: It was a pretty scoop and score by Michigan’s Zavier Simpson, who drove the lane and with one hand scooped and lifted the ball high over an outstretched arm, off the glass and into the hoop. Aleem Ford went 3 for 3 from 3-point range, hitting some big triples to help keep Wisconsin in the game. That’s nearly 70 percent of the misses, and that’s way too many. “Just to be able to get another shot at them is the ideal way for us to continue rolling”.

A rebound follow by Jackson and Iverson’s basket inside and missed free throw set up the tense final minutes. The highest-profile matchup between the Badgers and Wolverines came in the 1977 National Championship, when Wisconsin defeated MI, 6-5, in overtime.

Wisconsin also hurt its chances with missed free throws.

The Badgers peppered the MI net during the five-minute power play, and Weissbach got a shot through Hayden Lavigne (48 saves) to cut Michigan’s lead to 5-4. Again he had a one-and-one, and again he missed.