Hughes, Wilson power second-half surge as No. 18 Wisconsin beats Michigan 54-48

No. 18 Wisconsin beats Michigan 54-48

MADISON, Wis. — Trevon Hughes and Rob Wilson led a late scoring surge, powering No. 18 Wisconsin past Michigan 54-48 on Wednesday night.

Hughes scored 20 points and Wilson added a career-high 13 off the bench for the Badgers (15-4, 5-2 Big Ten), who won despite shooting 4 of 24 from 3-point range.

DeShawn Sims scored 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Wolverines (10-8, 3-3), who were coming off a victory over then-No. 15 Connecticut on Sunday. Things don’t get much easier from here for the Wolverines, who play at No. 13 Purdue, then get No. 6 Michigan State at home.

Michigan led 39-30 after back-to-back 3-pointers by Stu Douglass, but Wisconsin went on a 13-4 run — including nine points by Wilson — to tie it at 43 with 4:04 left.

Hughes took it from there, hitting a long jumper and scoring on a driving layup with the shot clock running down to give the Badgers a 47-43 lead with 2:12 left.

Keaton Nankivil then drew a charge from Sims, and Wilson hit a pair of free throws to put the game out of reach.

Michigan scored only five points in the final 5 minutes.

Wisconsin again was without second-leading scorer Jon Leuer, out indefinitely after having surgery on his left wrist earlier this month. And it showed early on.

The Badgers got off to a miserable start on offense, missing their first eight shots from the floor before Mike Bruesewitz finally scored at the 13:56 mark. But they only trailed 6-2 at that point, as Michigan’s offense didn’t fare much better early on.

Michigan led 21-18 at halftime as Wisconsin shot 8 for 25 in the first half — including 1 for 10 from 3-point range — despite an 8-0 run to end of the half.

Sims scored 12 points and had eight rebounds in the first half for Michigan.

The Badgers have been shooting more 3-pointers since Leuer’s injury but haven’t been making them. They shot a combined 16 for 52 from 3-point range in the previous two games, a victory at Northwestern and a loss at Ohio State.