CHAMPAIGN, Ill. _ Ethan Happ carried his Wisconsin teammates to victory over Rutgers in Madison Square Garden last weekend.
Three days later, the No. 10 Badgers used depth and unexpected contributions to overwhelm a pesky Illinois team that had been solid at home.
Eight UW players scored, led by Happ with 14 and Nigel Hayes with 11, to lift the Badgers to a 57-43 victory Tuesday night at State Farm Center.
"They can hurt you inside, as all the Wisconsin teams have been able to do," Illinois coach John Groce said before the game, "and they've got great shooting outside."
UW (19-3, 8-1 Big Ten) extended its winning streak to six games and remained tied with Maryland (20-2, 8-1) for first place in the league.
The Terrapins extended their winning streak to seven games with a 77-71 victory at Ohio State earlier Tuesday.
Illinois (13-10, 3-7) suffered its 11th consecutive loss to UW, including five at home.
Happ, who scored 32 of UW's 61 points in the overtime victory over Rutgers on Saturday, finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds Tuesday.
Hayes added 11 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
That duo combined to score UW's final 12 points, getting six apiece.
Six other players scored for UW, which hit seven of its first nine shots for an early 16-2 lead and never trailed.
Bronson Koenig scored nine points, all in the first half when he helped UW build a 33-20 lead.
Zak Showalter added eight points. His 3-pointer with 9 minutes 49 seconds left was huge. It stopped a 5-0 Illinois run after the Illini had pulled within 42-36.
Khalil Iverson added six points, three steals and two of UW's five blocks. Iverson, 2 of 9 from 3-point range entering the game, hit 2 of 2 attempts Tuesday.
Vitto Brown, playing without a brace on his right knee, added five points and seven rebounds.
Charlie Thomas, Aaron Moesch and D'Mitrik Trice combined for four points and eight rebounds.
Three days after hitting just 3 of 25 3-pointers and 20 of 60 shots overall in the overtime victory over Rutgers, UW was hot early against the Illini.
"You can't yell people into shooting better," UW coach Greg Gard said before the game when asked about his team's shooting woes against Rutgers. "You can't bring emotion."
The solution: keep taking good shots and they'll eventually fall.
Illinois entered the night 3-1 at home in Big Ten play and 10-2 overall.
The Illini had outscored league foes by an average of 6.5 points at home. That marked a dramatic improvement from the road, where the Illini were 0-5 in league play and had been outscored by an average of 15.4 points.
"Much more potent team, for whatever reason, at home," Gard said before the game. "Very comfortable there. We'll have to play very well defensively to contain them."
UW held Illinois to 23.8 percent shooting from 3-point range (5 of 21) and 27.6 percent overall (16 of 58) and a season-low point total.
"Defensively, they make you earn everything," Groce said before the game. "They make very few mistakes. They're very disciplined at that end.
"You can tell those guys are not only older, they have played a lot of games together. They are very connected."
After dispatching the Illini, UW and Maryland remain connected at the top of the Big Ten.
