But Saturday, just over a year since MSU’s last dramatic victory against the Badgers, Gholston got another chance to celebrate — this time on the field with his teammates — as the Spartans toppled Wisconsin 16-13 in overtime on a last play 12-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Andrew Maxwell to junior wide out Bennie Fowler.

“It felt way better to run like, five yards onto the field than to run from my apartment,” Gholston laughed.

The Spartans (5-4 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) trailed Wisconsin throughout the majority of the game before Maxwell led the Spartans on a 12-play, 75 yard drive that ended with junior running back Le’Veon Bell taking a shovel pass from Maxwell, plunging into the end zone from five yards out and knotting the game at 10-10 with just over a minute remaining.

The drive’s key play came when, facing second and 17, Maxwell dropped back and found sophomore wide receiver Tony Lippett, who made a leaping catch for a 20 yard gain and putting the Spartans at Wisconsin’s 22-yard line.

It proved to be the right call at the right time to use a play that wasn’t even in MSU’s playbook when the Spartans woke up this morning.

“That’s actually something we drew up this morning at the hotel,” Maxwell said. “So to see that, to kind of get the look that we were looking for and the look that we drew it up for and I threw it a little high, I thought I overthrew him when it left my hand and he made a great play.

“He’s so tall and so long that he went up and got it, and that really kept the drive going for us.”

In overtime, MSU’s defense came up huge as it had all day, shutting down Wisconsin and” holding them to a field goal — something that would haunt the Badgers as the Spartans marched 25 yards down the field on their possession for the game winning score.

Maxwell finished the day completing 24-of-39 passes for 216 yards and two touchdowns, but it was in the final two drives where he shone, completing 9-of-11 for 81 yards and the two scores.

“(Maxwell) was on point, like I said earlier, he’s that guy,” sophomore wide receiver Keith Mumphery said of his quarterback. “He plays with swag and he really showed what kind of guy he is. He stepped up and did what he had to do.”

MSU also saw an outstanding performance from its defensive unit, which held the Badgers to 19 total yards on the ground, and recorded five sacks on the day. The Spartans also combined to notch 12 tackles for loss for a total of 59 yards.

“I thought a lot of guys on defense stepped up,” junior linebacker Max Bullough said. “(Gholston) I thought had a tremendous game, (sophomore linebacker) Taiwan Jones comes in there and plays fast, believes what he sees and plays through all that. Give credit to guys like that and our defense we stayed together.

“We understand what Wisconsin does, they know what we do, it’s about being tough and playing every playing and not giving up the big one here and there like we have.”

The Spartans were able to contain the Badgers for most of the game with Wisconsin’s biggest play coming on a blown coverage which allowed quarterback Joel Stave to find tight end Jacob Pedersen wide open for a 31-yard touchdown early in the second quarter. After that, the defense shut the Buckeyes down, allowing only a pair of field goals from that point on.

Bullough led the Spartans with nine tackles and also notched his first two sacks of the season.

The Spartans now look towards next Saturday when they’ll hope to continue their momentum against Nebraska in Spartan Stadium.

“We lost these close ones,” Maxwell said after the game. “But to stay together and to keep working and keep believing as a unit and as a family and to finally have one go our way — this could be the spark that we need to kind of carry us over and propel us the rest of the way.”