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Billed as a perennial highlight on the schedule, Wisconsin’s 61-58 loss to Marquette in Milwaukee was the battle that has come to be expected from an in-state rivalry.

“It was a great basketball game,” Marquette head coach Buzz Williams said. “I thought the last 16 minutes was like Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.”

Playing against the three Marquette senior guards Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews, the key for the Badgers was to slow down the game and keep the Golden Eagles from scoring in transition.

“Whenever you play a team like that, it’s the way the game is going to be,” McNeal said. “They are going to slow the ball down, and they are going to make you work on defense each and every possession.”

In the first half, the Badgers had it their way. Going into the locker room at the end the first half, Wisconsin held a 33-27 lead. The Badgers out-rebounded a smaller Marquette team 16-10 and even built a 10-point lead with 6:55 left to go in the half.

“In the first half, we were getting what we wanted,” Wisconsin forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. “We were making them shoot outside shots, which was something we wanted to do and we rebounded. Then things got switched. They got the momentum, and we never got it back.”

As the second half started, however, Marquette began to take control. Matthews, who only had seven points in the first half, scored 14 straight points over 11 minutes in the second half to help Marquette build a 52-49 lead. The Golden Eagles never looked back.

“He was definitely feeling it,” Krabbenhoft said. “He had that one that kind of went in and out, which was kind of a heat-check, and he had a guy right on him but pulled it right up. That is when you know a guy is just feeling it.”

At the end of the game, McNeal, James and Matthews accounted for 45 of Marquette’s 61 points, including a game-high 26 from McNeal. James finished with 10 and Matthews, who averages 22 points per game, only had nine points. As a team, the Golden Eagles shot 41.4 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from the free throw line.

While McNeal went on his run, the Badgers were unable to respond. They went scoreless from 8:18 in the half until forward Marcus Landry hit a layup with 2:17 left to go in the game. By then, though, Marquette had built a 59-51 lead.

“We scored two points on nine possessions and that hurts,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “We lose the lead, and they get the lead. We played from behind on the road. Those are things you don’t like to do, but you try to get it done.”

Besides outscoring the Badgers, the Golden Eagles also out-rebounded Wisconsin. Marquette managed 12 offensive boards after halftime while Wisconsin, who had an evident size-advantage, came up with just two.

“It was big time for us tonight,” McNeal said about his team’s dominance on the boards. “Most of the teams we play are bigger than us. We know we have to play a certain way and have to have a certain aggressiveness to us. We have to have a chip on our shoulder every time we get on the court, especially in the rebounding department. I think we came out tonight and proved it to ourselves, and everyone else we could do that.”

On the Badgers’ side of the ball, there was very little production in the second half. Marquette limited Landry to just three points on four shots and six rebounds. The only offensive bright spots for Wisconsin were Trevon Hughes, who finished with 14 points, and Keaton Nankivil, who finished with 11 points but just one rebound.

“One rebound might be deceiving because he probably got a body on his guy quite a bit,” Ryan said of Nankivil. “You always like to see your five guy a little more active on the glass. But he ended up doing some really nice things for a sophomore.”

Despite giving up 45 points to Marquette’s guards, Ryan was impressed with the composure his freshmen, especially Jordan Taylor and Rob Wilson, who finished the game with seven points, including a three point basket during an 8-0 run during the first half.

“I think Rob Wilson showed some things athletically,” Ryan said. “Keep an eye on him. He’s an interesting guy. He’s had to step it up a little more. I saw some good things that he brings to the table.”

Ryan, who dismissed the fact that he prepares any differently for a rivalry game than any other games, thought his team was ready for Saturday’s game, especially coming off a big win against Virginia Tech in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

“If we have two, three days of preparation, one day you are throwing zones in and you are throwing traps in,” Ryan said. “We just didn’t get off the boat. Now, how you execute it, it might look like we were at Ellis Island.”

After Saturday night’s win, Marquette had its first back-to-back victories against Wisconsin since the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons. The game also marks the Golden Eagles’ 53 victory in the 115th meeting between the two teams.