Burke forced a steal against junior guard Keith Appling with 22 seconds to play and charged down the floor for a decisive dunk. Moments later, Burke stole the ball on a pass directed at Appling from freshman guard Gary Harris to send the Crisler Center crowd into raucous pandemonium.

Of course, Burke made much more than two critical plays for the Wolverines — an increasingly common sight from one of the nation’s most dominant point guards. But in a game loaded with big moments, few were larger or more significant.

“We did a decent job on Burke,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “We made him earn his baskets and he did earn his baskets.

“We did some real good things but unfortunately, good isn’t good enough in this league and it’s not even close to enough on the road.”

A microcosm of the game at large, Burke finished with a game-high 21 points while the Spartans (22-7 overall, 11-5 Big Ten) turned the ball over 18 times setting the table for the No. 4 Wolverines (24-5, 11-5) to come away with a 58-57 victory.

Harris said the final shot off the inbound was set up for himself or Appling to get a look at the basket for a chance to win the game before Burke’s steal.

The Spartans were forced to leave Ann Arbor on a sour note after earning a 75-52 victory against U-M in February.

“They switched and that kind of threw us off,” Harris said. “It was just — we have to improvise and play good defense at the end and I turned the ball over.”

Burke has been one of the Big Ten’s most talented players for most of the season, ranking second in the conference in scoring (18.9 points per game), first in assists (6.9 per game) and sixth in steals (1.6 per game).

Even with a myriad of marquee moments in his highlight reel, Burke said his steal leading to a breakaway dunk in the closing minute might top them all.

“I think that’s (ranked) number one,” Burke said. “I’ve had a lot of those types of steals but I think our team needed it most at that time. Who knows what would have happened if I wouldn’t have got that steal? Maybe we’d be crushed here.”

The Spartans now are sitting with a season-high three-game losing streak after dropping consecutive games to No. 1 Indiana, No. 18 Ohio State and now the Wolverines. Before the current streak, the Spartans had not lost two consecutive games all season.

The team now gets to return to Breslin Center for a two-game home stand starting with Wisconsin on Thursday (9 p.m., ESPN) and concluding with Northwestern on Sunday (6 p.m., Big Ten Network).

Signaling “bitter” feelings after a loss to the pesky in-state rival Wolverines, junior center Adreian Payne said the Spartans have work to be done to close out the regular season on a strong note.

“We look at it as we shouldn’t have lost these games — we shouldn’t have lost any of them,” Payne said. “We’ve got to look at it and watch the film and learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”