D'Mitrik Trice had 28 points and four assists and the Wisconsin Badgers never trailed while defeating Michigan, 81-74, in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Thursday.
Micah Potter had 18 points and seven rebounds off the bench for the Badgers (18-10, 11-6 Big Ten), who extended their winning streak to five games. Akeem Ford also supplied 18 points with eight rebounds for Wisconsin, which shot 53.7 percent from the field.
Zavier Simpson scored a career-high 32 points and added six assists for the 19th-ranked Wolverines (18-10, 9-8), who saw their five-game winning streak snapped. Freshman Franz Wagner contributed 17 points and seven rebounds.
The Badgers led by 10 just over five minutes into the game and reached halftime with a 43-33 advantage.
Potter had a dunk and 3-pointer to give Wisconsin a 19-9 lead. Michigan then had a 13-5 outburst to cut the Badgers' lead to two points.
Wisconsin answered with 12 unanswered points. Brevin Pritzl had four of those points and Ford drained a 3-pointer. Simpson scored the Wolverines' last eight points of the half to whittle the Badgers lead to 10.
The Wolverines scored the first eight points of the second half, sparked by a Jon Teske layup. Clinging to a 45-43 lead, the Badgers reeled off eight straight points, including five by Ford.
Potter and Tyler Wahl made 3-pointers to increase Wisconsin's lead to 59-45. Michigan chipped away and got its deficit down to six on a Simpson layup with 8:38 left.
A Trice layup made it 70-60 but Michigan responded with a 7-0 outburst. Wagner made a 3-pointer and Simpson converted a layup during that span.
Trice halted that run with a 3-pointer. The Wolverines never got closer than four points again until Simpson made a free throw with 27 seconds left to cut Wisconsin's edge to 77-74. But Simpson and Brandon Johns Jr. missed free throws that could have closed the gap even more.
--Field Level Media
