MADISON, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin hosted one of the league’s hotter teams, a desperate group that needed to add Quad-1 wins to its flimsy profile and wanted to give its head coach its 700th collegiate victory. A.J. Storr and the Badgers weren’t in the mood.

Storr shouldered the brunt of No.13 Wisconsin’s efficient offense Friday, as his game-high 28 points led the Badgers to a near-complete 81-66 victory over Michigan State.

Once losing eight straight games in the series, Wisconsin (16-4, 8-1 Big Ten) has started to slowly turn the tide by winning five of eight and sweeping the season series for the first since 2003-04. In reality, this season was more so a statement against the Spartans. UW never trailed in the two meetings, delivered its biggest margin of victory (15) in the series since 2011, and gave the Spartans their worst loss to anybody in nearly a calendar year (Jan.23, 2023).

Here are my takeaways from the Kohl Center.

After enduring a handful of defensive hiccups to begin the month of January, Wisconsin started to turn a corner in Tuesday’s win at Minnesota by holding the Gophers to 59 points and under one point per possession. Against a more talented offensive team, the Badgers put the clamps down on a group with a lot of impactful players.

Michigan State graduate guard Tyson Walker is third in the Big Ten and 30th nationally in scoring at 19.7 points per game, but the combination of guards Chucky Hepburn, Max Klesmit, and John Blackwell held him to 11 points on 14 shots. Hepburn carried the brunt of the responsibility.

“Tyson is so quick,” head coach Greg Gard said. “They have him in ball screens, coming out of ball screens, so you have to really stay alert. You can’t fall asleep with him … Chucky is the consummate team player and he’s a winner.”

Graduate forward Malik Hall was bothered inside by Tyler Wahl and Carter Gilmore and needed 11 shots to get 13 points.

The Spartans had won eight of their last 10 by averaging 79.7 points and 49.7 field goal percentage. The Badgers’ physicality limited them to their fourth-lowest point total and field goal percentage of the season (41.7 percent) and barely over a point per possession (1.02), as UW constantly made guys work.

UW delivered a solid first half at Minnesota but saw the Gophers start to erase it quickly with seven points on their first three possessions. That wasn’t the case Friday with UW’s defense holding the Spartans to 2-for-6 from the field, allowing UW to grow its lead to 12 around the under-16 media timeout.

The Spartans often wield a dominant frontcourt, willing to throw their physicality around inside to control the paint. Michigan State is smaller this season, and Wisconsin’s most veteran players are forwards. That disparity helped kickstart the offense in UW’s favor, especially when it came to the effort.

UW won every low-post category; rebounding (35-25), points in the paint (32-26), offensive rebounds (12-8), and second-chance points (17-9).

“The loose balls has nothing to do with size,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “I give Wisconsin a lot of credit. They just found a way to come up with balls. Wahl comes up with them. Klesmit came up with a couple.”

“A lot of their rebounds weren’t on rebounds, they were on loose balls,” he added. “It wasn’t like someone went over us and got some. The ball was knocked around and they came up with it.”

With 8:11 remaining in the first half, Wahl air-balled a baseline shot but managed to recover his rebound in traffic and hit a shot through contact. He missed the free throw, but freshman Nolan Winter tracked down the loose ball, leading to a four-point possession when Klesmit hit a shot in the lane.

Four minutes later, after Connor Essegian badly missed a deep three-pointer, Blackwell tracked down the rebound in a scrum and created a three-point play through traffic.

Izzo admitted that Michigan State had to pick its poison by guarding the perimeter and the low post, and the Badgers picked both a part by going 20-for-32 on twos and 9-for-25 on threes.

“The coaching staff does a great job of being on us about getting the ball inside, not just this game but any game,” said forward Steven Crowl, who finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, and three assists. “I think our guards do a great job of getting the ball inside, too, not only just standing around but moving when we do get it inside. Me and Tyler, when we get in there, we’ll just score, or the guards will make a good play out of the post.”

Storr accounted for 12 of the 25 points from the starters in the first half, but the Badgers delivered 43 points by halftime because the bench – even without experienced guard Kamari McGee - rose to the occasion.

Minus his heat-check three-pointer, Essegian registered eight points in six minutes, hitting three shots in rhythm.

Winter added six points, one shy of his career-high because he hit two three-pointers for the first time in his career. He had only two made three-pointers in 11 attempts entering the game.

Blackwell filled the stat sheet early with three points, two rebounds, and two assists. Both he and Gilmore (1 pt, 2 rbds, 1 asst) helped the Badgers outscore Michigan State by 11 when they were on the court.

UW’s bench outscored Michigan State, 22 to 11, the third time in the last four games the reserves hit at least 20 points.

“That’s what I love about this team,” Hepburn said. “This team has so much depth coming off the bench and everybody is ready to play … Anybody who steps on the floor is ready to battle, ready to compete. Nobody is soft on this team. Nobody has a soft mind, and nobody is selfish on this team. We all want to compete; we all want to win. We all have the same goal, which is a national championship and a Big Ten championship.”

8-1 - Wisconsin has started 8-1 or better in Big Ten play for the third time in the last nine seasons (2015 and 2017).

5 - Picking up two Quad-1 wins over Michigan State this season, the Badgers are one of five teams with at least five Quad-1 wins (Purdue - 7, UConn - 7, Arizona - 6, Houston - 5).

10 - Wisconsin won its 10th-consecutive home game, the team's longest streak since winning 15 in a row from Jan.14 2020 to Dec.22 2020.

76.0 - UW raised its ppg 0.3 points. If they continue this scoring pace, the Badgers will have their best offensive output since the 1970-71 season (86.3).

100 - Wahl appeared in his 100th career Wisconsin win, just the seventh Badger to reach that milestone. Josh Gasser holds the program record for 117 victories.

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