[media-credit name=’Derek Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The nation’s longest home winning streak ended Tuesday as No. 1-ranked Illinois (20-0, 6-0) defeated No. 18 Wisconsin (13-4, 4-2) 75-65 at the Kohl Center.

The Badgers led for much of the second half, building the lead to as many as eight points, but the game slipped away as Wisconsin scored just three points in the last five minutes.

“It’s a moment that escaped,” head coach Bo Ryan said.

The turning point came with eight minutes to play when unheralded forward Jack Ingram knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to put Illinois ahead 61-58 — the Illini’s first lead since the opening three minutes of the second half, when they led 44-42. Ingram’s timely shooting capped a 13-2 Illinois run that erased the Badgers’ largest lead of the night and shifted the momentum in favor of the Illini.

“In the Badgers’ faces, maybe a little doubt in that stretch, and our guys just jumped onto it and just took the game at that point,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said.

Wisconsin briefly regained the lead with a 3 from guard Sharif Chambliss and a lay-up from forward Mike Wilkinson. Alando Tucker’s lay-up with 4:34 to play extended the edge to three, but the 64-61 lead was Wisconsin’s last.

A pair of free throws from James Augustine sliced the lead to one, and after misses from Ray Nixon and Andreas Helmigk, Ingram put the Illini back in front with two free throws of his own. On the ensuing possession, Ingram came up with a steal that led to an Augustine dunk, giving Illinois a 67-64 lead with 3:04 to play.

The Illini never looked back from there. Augustine added another dunk on Illinois’ next possession off a feed from Luther Head to push the lead to five at 69-64.

Chambliss missed an open 3 that could have brought the Badgers within one possession, but a miss from Dee Brown kept Wisconsin in the game. The next time down the floor, guard Kammron Taylor found an opening and took the ball to the basket for an uncontested lay-up. But the sophomore failed to convert, and the Badgers did have another opportunity to regain control.

“If Kam (Taylor) makes the lay-up, we have a timeout coming; I had already called for the timeout with the official in front of me and then it rolls off the rim,” Ryan said. “That one hurt.”

Down five with less than two minutes to play, the Badgers were forced to foul to stop the clock. Six free throws later, Wisconsin’s 38-game home win streak was over, and the undefeated Illini had earned another week as the No. 1 team in the nation.

“I think we wanted it more, and it shows,” Illinois guard Deron Williams said. “We fought back and we pulled it out.”

At the outset, the top-ranked Illini seemed poised to run away with their first win in the last six trips to Madison. Bruce Weber’s squad sprinted to an early lead as Augustine blocked a Clayton Hanson jumper and went coast-to-coast for a dunk. After a lay-up from Williams pushed the lead to 6-3, Brown stole a pass at half-court and found Head for an open 3 to open up a 9-3 Illinois advantage with 17:32 to play in the first half.

Then the fireworks began from the perimeter. Hanson opened the floodgates with a 3 from the top of the key to bring the score to 9-6. After a Luther Head lay-up brought the score to 11-6, Chambliss and Nixon knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to give Wisconsin a 12-11 lead with 14:13 remaining.

Illinois’ Roger Powell answered with a 3 of his own to put the Illini back in front, and Nixon drained another from beyond the arc to give the Badgers a 15-14 advantage. After Brown hit a trey at the other end of the floor to put Illinois up 17-15 at the 13:09 mark, the two teams had knocked down five straight from 3-point range.

Head ended the long-distance barrage with a baseline lay-up after a pump-fake in the corner, giving the Illini a 19-15 lead. Williams capped a 7-0 Illinois run with a short jumper to put the Illini in front 21-15 with 12:14 to play.

Chambliss answered for the Badgers with a deep 3 that brought the lead to 21-18.

The Illini pushed the lead to five with a spinning runner from Williams, and the Badgers again answered from beyond the arc. Nixon knocked down his third 3 of the half to cut the lead to two, and Wilkinson tied the game at 26 with a quick baseline spin from the post.

A Dee Brown 3-pointer sparked a 9-2 Illinois run that gave the Illini a 35-28 edge with 4:26 to go, but the Badgers closed out the half with a 5-0 run of their own to enter the locker room trailing by just two, 35-33.

In the second half, Tucker came alive. After the athletic forward was held scoreless in the first half, Tucker charged out of the gates to score the Badgers’ first four points in the second stanza. All of Tucker’s team-high 16 points came in the second half.

Three-and-a-half minutes into the half, Wisconsin took the lead for the first time since leading 15-14 with 13:21 to play in the opening frame. A 3 from Tucker put the Badgers on top 47-44 with 16:27 remaining. The Badgers would remain in front until Ingram’s heroics turned the tide at the 7:41 mark.

A lay-up from Taylor with 15:13 remaining capped a 12-0 Wisconsin run that put the Badgers on top 51-44. By the 12:40 mark, Wisconsin had opened its largest lead of the game at 56-48.

The Badgers scored just nine points the rest of the way, while Illinois rattled off 27 to take the victory.

“It could easily have went the other way,” Williams said. “Luckily it didn’t. We fought back and we hung on.”