Wisconsin Badgers vs Michigan St. Spartans Box Score on Jan 17, 2020

Senior Cassius Winston handed out four assists on Friday night, leading No. 15 Michigan State to a 67-55 victory over visiting Wisconsin to become the Big Ten's all-time leader in career assists with 817.

It was, otherwise, a tough night for Winston, who scored six points on 3-for-12 shooting in East Lansing. But Winston had plenty of help, particularly from junior Xavier Tillman who scored 15 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had four assists for the Spartans (14-4, 6-1).

Former Michigan State guard Mateen Cleaves ended his career in 2000 with 816 and was in attendance at the game Friday.

Sophomores Aaron Henry and Gabe Brown each added 13 points while freshman Rocket Watts added 11 for Michigan State.

Junior Nate Reuvers scored 19 to lead Wisconsin (11-7, 4-3), which had won six of seven entering the game and is the only Big Ten team with two road victories. Sophomore Kobe King added 10 points for the Badgers.

Michigan State controlled the game in first half, shooting 53.9 percent from the field (14-for-26) while making 3 of 7 from 3-point range. On the other side, defense was just as effective as Wisconsin made only one of its first 10 shots and finished the half 9-for-31 and just 1-for-9 from 3-point range.

Only seven offensive rebounds and eight second-chance points for the Badgers kept the game from getting truly out of hand.

Michigan State scored the first four points of the second half to extend its lead to 39-20, but Wisconsin quickly came to life as Reuvers scored eight straight, D'Mitrik Trice hit a jumper and Reuvers nailed another triple to push the Badgers' run to 13-0 cut the deficit to 39-33 with 15:41 to play.

The Spartans responded, however, by getting a three-point play from freshman Malik Hall before capping an 11-2 run on a 3-pointer from Watts to push the advantage back to 50-35 with 11:47 left in the game.

Watts got going at that point, hitting three straight 3-pointers as Michigan State extended the lead to 63-39 after Brown dunked a lob pass from Foster Loyer as the crowd erupted with 7:40 to play. Wisconsin's runs were over at that point as the Spartans cruised over the final minutes.

--Field Level Media