March 16--Wisconsin put a stamp on its bid for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament after surviving a thrilling 80-69 overtime decision over Michigan State in Sunday afternoon's title game of the Big Ten tournament at the United Center.
Wisconsin earned a No. 1 seed in the West and will play Coastal Carolina on Friday.
"Even I'm speechless and that's hard to do," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said of his team's comeback from an 11-point deficit. "It was the fight in this group, and to do what they did when it seemed like Michigan State couldn't do anything wrong. I just hope we have something left in us come NCAA Tournament time."
The Badgers improved to 30-4 and the Spartans fell to 23-11.
Nigel Hayes led Wisconsin with 25 points and Frank Kaminsky added 19. MSU got 16 points from Denzel Valentine and Branden Dawson.
Michigan State led 32-31 at the half as Kaminsky hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.
Michigan State out-rebounded Wisconsin 16-10 in the first half. In the second half, the Spartans continued to control the boards and took leads of 50-43 and 57-46 before the Badgers heated up.
A three-point play by Nigel Hayes pulled Wisconsin within 59-57 with 5:00 left. Hayes came through with another pair of free throws to tie the game 62-62 with 3:25 remaining.
Following a basket by Matt Costello to give MSU the lead again at 64-62, Kaminsky answered with bucket to tie it at 64.
With 1:43 remaining, Kaminsky canned a three-pointer to make it 67-64 Wisconsin.
Valentine hit a three-pointer at the other end to tie it 67-67. Travis Trice gave the Spartans a 69-67 advantage before Wisconsin called a timout with 40 seconds remaining.
The game went into overtime tied at 69 before Wisconsin out-scored MSU 11-0.
"(Ryan) told us that if it's in our hands, we need to take care of business," said sophomore guard Bronson Koenig, who scored 18 points. "We were down eleven and they thought they had it in the bag, but I kept reminding my teammates that we were never going to give up. I'm just at a loss for words."
fmitchell@tribpub.com
Wisconsin wins Big Ten regular season and tournament
