No. 10 Michigan State suffers lopsided loss against Wisconsin

Connor Earegood, The Detroit News on Feb 13, 2026

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MADISON, Wis. — That one is going to sting for a while.

Michigan State came to Madison with a chance to continue clawing its way back into the Big Ten title hunt. Instead, it leaves stomaching a 92-71 wire-to-wire loss to the Badgers, who hit 15 3-pointers Friday night at Kohl Center.

One game after a win over top-10 Illinois, No. 10 Michigan State’s loss to Wisconsin is a serious blow to its odds of repeating as Big Ten champion. Heading into a two-game homestand against UCLA (Tuesday) and Ohio State, Michigan State — with three losses in its past four games — trails first-place Michigan by three games with six left to play.

Junior forward Coen Carr led Michigan State (20-5, 10-4) with 19 points, though for most of the game the offense looked disjointed. Point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. shot 3 for 12 with 14 points and 12 assists. Kur Teng scored 12 off the bench.

For Wisconsin (18-7, 10-4), point guard Nick Boyd outdueled Fears with 29 points on 17 shots, leading a radiant first half with four 3-pointers himself. John Blackwell added 24 points despite first half foul trouble.

Wisconsin led 28-14 in the paint and 19-8 off second-chance points.

Down 51-34 at halftime with just four points in the paint, center Carson Cooper got Michigan State started with a pull-up from there that took a few precarious bounces before falling through the hoop. That rim would prove unfriendly to Carr a couple shots later, though he yammed home a dunk to follow that might’ve gotten some frustrations out.

Wisconsin stayed in control, leading by 59-43 with 15 minutes to play. Flummoxed inside, Jaxon Kohler got Michigan State going with range, pulling up for a middy and following it with a 3. Those buckets made his first points of the game.

After the Spartans kept relative pace in the early stretch of the half, Wisconsin pulled to a 22-point lead after Boyd and Blackwell hit 3s. After a Carr dunk and Jordan Scott 3 answered at the other end, Braeden Carrington poured on another 3 for Wisconsin.

Up 74-24 halfway through the second half, Blackwell scored four straight points to make it a game-high 24-point lead.

Carr and Fears led the bulk of a 10-2 run that got the deficit back down to 17 points at 6:02. But Blackwell continued to keep pace, scoring 19 of his points after halftime.

After a foul call on Austin Rapp after hard contact with Kohler, a lengthy review showed a hook-and-hold flagrant 1 foul on Kohler. Rapp hits the shots to make it 85-64 Wisconsin with 5:40 to go. Despite a 3 from Teng, Michigan State stayed on the far side of a double-digit deficit.

Wisconsin drew a 51-34 lead by halftime, scoring 10 3-pointers in the first half from six different players. Nick Boyd led the Badgers with 20 points and four 3s in the frame. His teammate Andrew Rohde set the tone with a corner 3 on the very first possession.

Both Fears and Scott struggled to guard Boyd. He made Scott stumble with a quick move for one of his 3-pointers. He stopped in transition and lost Fears for a few feet before burying the 3 that made halftime’s score.

Michigan State hung around at first, keeping the game within a shot or two in the first seven minutes. Carr scored the first seven points for the Spartans, then Teng scored five to follow. Cooper’s layup at 13:08 made it 17-14 Wisconsin.

Then came the run. It was a big one. The Badgers hit three 3s on a 15-0 run across a span of 3:57 that put them up a commanding 32-14. Four Michigan State turnovers fueled eight of those points.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo called timeout at 8:51 to try and snap the run, lighting into Fears — who he had pulled early in the run for instructions — as he walked to the huddle. The break didn’t do much as Wisconsin sixth man Rapp hit another 3 off the bench right after it.

If the 3-pointer put Wisconsin in charge of this game, it got Michigan State back into it, too. Carr snapped a scoreless 5:36 with a jumper, part of a 13-4 stretch for Michigan State between the under-eight timeout and a timeout called by Wisconsin coach Greg Gard, who had enough watching Fears and Scott team up for back-to-back-to-back 3s that made it 36-27 with 4:56 to play.

Wisconsin led by 18 at the end of the run and never led by less than nine the rest of the half. Michigan State didn’t hit another field goal for the final 4:56 after Scott’s second 3-pointer, with seven free throws trying to keep pace as the Badgers led by 17 at the half.