GREEN & WHITE BASKETBALL

Michigan State beefs up résumé with 84-74 win over No. 15 Wisconsin

Chris Solari
Detroit Free Press
Nick Ward of MSU slams the ball home after an alley-oop feed from Cassius Winston in the 1st half of their game with Wisconsin Sunday February 26, 2017 in East Lansing.  KEVIN W. FOWLER PHOTO

EAST LANSING – Michigan State needed to make a case to the NCAA Tournament selection committee by stealing at least one game against a ranked opponent during this critical two-week stretch to end the regular season.

It took a variety of contributions and overcoming foul trouble, but the Spartans finally landed their signature victory.

MSU used a 16-5 run midway through the second half, then held off No. 15 Wisconsin’s dogged comeback for an 84-74 senior day victory Sunday at Breslin Center. It’s just the Spartans’ second win over a ranked opponent in eight tries this season.

“It’s been hard on us. And we’ve handled it, we’ve survived it,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said. “Doesn’t mean we’re done yet, doesn’t mean that we can’t accomplish some things yet, doesn’t mean that we’re over the hump. It just means we learned how to deal with some pressure.”

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The Spartans got big games from all four of their freshmen again. Nick Ward scored 22 points with nine rebounds, while fellow forward Miles Bridges had 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Cassius Winston finished with 10 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, and fellow guard Joshua Langford added nine points and four rebounds.

“We’re never satisfied. We want to continue to win all of these games we have to make sure we’re in there,” Bridges said. “We beat a ranked team, but we want to continue to get better.”

The Spartans (18-11, 10-6 Big Ten) have won five of their last seven and are now in a three-way tie with Minnesota and Maryland for third place in the conference. The second-place Badgers (22-7, 11-5) have lost four of its last five.

MSU’s final two regular-season games are on the road, starting with a 9 p.m. tip Wednesday at Illinois (Big Ten Network) and wrapping up next Saturday at No. 24 Maryland (2 p.m./CBS).

“We got two more to go. We just gotta build off it,” said sophomore Matt McQuaid, who equaled a season high with 15 points. “We can’t take anything for granted. We just gotta play like there’s no tomorrow.”

The Spartans held Wisconsin’s leading scorer Ethan Happ to just eight points on 4-for-10 shooting with 11 rebounds. Nigel Hayes led the Badgers with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Bronson Koenig scored 17, and Zak Showalter added 15.

MSU built a 13-point lead in the opening half as Ward scored 11 of his 13 opening-half points in the first 5:25. That included five straight on a three-point play and an alley-oop dunk from Winston.

But the Badgers started to take advantage of the Spartans’ foul trouble in the paint and went on a 14-2 closing kick that pulled within 38-37 at halftime. Hayes and Happ combined for eight points in the final 5 minutes, while Showalter’s three-pointer at the buzzer gave him 11 at halftime.

Wisconsin cut MSU’s lead to two early in the second half, but the Spartans built it back to 68-55 with 8:06 to play on a Winston three-pointer.

“They made plays,” Badgers coach Greg Gard said. “Ward converted. Winston hit a big three. McQuaid hit big shots.”

Wisconsin wouldn’t go away, answering with an 11-4 to pull back within four on Koenig’s three-pointer with 4:02 remaining. But Bridges got a pair of free throws and Ward fought through a hard foul for a layup and three-point play with 1:44 to play to put the Spartans back up 11.

Hayes and Koenig hit buckets to trim it to 77-70, but Bridges, Winston and Alvin Ellis sealed the win by getting MSU’s last seven points at the free-throw line in the final minute.

“We got experience – not much, but we got a little bit of experience,” Winston said. “We’ve been battle-tested and we’ve learned from our mistakes. Now, it’s finally starting to show.”

Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@chrissolari.