"It was a grind of a game," MSU coach Tom Izzo said. "I say that every time I play Wisconsin, it hasn't changed."

The Spartans return to the floor Sunday for the tourney's championship game and will play No. 3 Michigan at 3:30 p.m. EST. It will mark the third meeting this season, with MSU having won both. It will also be the third time the rivals have met in the conference tourney.

"This school is a winning school," Xavier Tillman said. "That’s what we do. That’s the mindset. Coach Izzo having his 600th win yesterday just means how important winning is to this school."

Wisconsin (23-10) awaits its seeding and location for the NCAA Tournament and will find out during the Selection Sunday special airing at 6 p.m. on CBS.

Winston, the consensus Big Ten Player of the Year, led all scorers with 21 points and had six of MSU's 18 assists. Goins added 13 points — four 3-pointers — and 12 rebounds in 36 minutes. Tillman finished behind Winston with 17 points.

After a four-point, seven turnover performance against Nebraska on Friday, Ethan Happ led the Badgers with 20 points, six rebounds and one turnover. All of Happ's points came in the paint as the Badgers dominated with a 40-22 scoring advantage inside.

"Obviously disappointed in the outcome," Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. "We could never overcome the start and couldn't get back after they got hot at the beginning, and I thought we did a good job of battling back."

Kyle Ahrens exited at 12:03 mark in the first half after taking a hard fall on the floor that apparently re-injured his chronic back ailment. Ahrens returned with 5:16 left in the half and finished with two rebounds and an assist in eight minutes.

Nick Ward, in his second game back returning from a hairline fracture in his left hand, ended with four fouls, three boards and two points in 11 minutes. Freshman Aaron Henry scored six points on two 3s, and grabbed a career-best 11 rebounds in 30 minutes — eclipsing his previous high of eight boards against U-M on March 9.

"The rebounding in general was big for us, out-rebounding them like that," Izzo said. The Spartans ended out-rebounding the Badgers 44-30.

The Spartans began the game shooting 8-of-10 from the floor — four of which from 3-point range — to take a 20-6 lead spanning the first seven minutes. Wisconsin connected on two of its first 10 from the field, went on a 17-8 run at the end the first half to enter halftime shooting 38.7 percent.

After making three straight layups to cut into MSU's 20-10 lead with 11:55 in the half, Wisconsin missed its next six field goal attempts, allowing the Spartans to build their lead back to 17, to lead 27-10 with 7:43 left in the half.

The Spartans, however, went on two three-plus minute scoring droughts as the Badgers went on their 17-8 run to enter the midway break down only 35-27.

"We've got to make shots," Gard said. "We had some really good looks. Need to be able to score inside and out, and we weren't consistent enough inside."

Ugly turnovers from MSU in the opening minutes of the second half kept the Badgers within striking distance. After a jumper from Khalil Iverson with 9:35 to play, Wisconsin cut the deficit to 49-43.

Iverson's layup marked the start of a seven-plus minute drought in which the Badgers went 0-for-9 from the floor off well-contested shots. D'Mitrik Trice made an inside jumper to end the spell with 2:21 left, far less then enough time to make up for MSU's 56-45 lead.

Wisconsin entered Saturday averaging 36.6 percent from deep — second in the league behind the Spartans (38.3 percent) — but ended 2-of-19 from behind the arc for the game. Trice went 1-for-6 from 3, and Brad Davison was held without a triple on five attempts.

"I think we did a good job following our scouting reports, knowing the personnel," Winston said. "We didn’t let them get a lot of easy looks.

"Once they make threes, they’re a hard team to beat. So, run them off that three-point line, keep them as a mid-range team, that was our gameplan."