EVANSTON, Ill. — In its first game without injured forward Jon Leuer, the No. 13 Wisconsin men’s basketball team played without another star for much of the game Wednesday at Northwestern.

Senior guard Trevon Hughes was virtually nonexistent through the first 31 minutes before exploding over the final nine to lead the Badgers to a 60-50 victory over the Wildcats.

After scoring just one point through 31 minutes of play, Hughes caught fire for 15 points in the final nine minutes, including 14 of Wisconsin’s 16 points during a four-minute stretch. Over the same stretch, the game went from a 42-42 tie to a 7-point UW lead at 55-48.

“I thought it was a winnable game, but Hughes came through,” Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said. “He missed a shot, then he lined up another one, misses and then knocks it down. He’s a senior and he’s a very good player.”

On back-to-back possessions in the second half, Hughes hit from beyond the arc after a UW miss from long distance.

The first time, he missed and sophomore guard Jordan Taylor found him for an open three. On the next trip down the court, Taylor missed and followed his own shot for the offensive board before finding Hughes open again for the trey.

It was at that point that it became clear Hughes felt like he could not miss.

“Once you get that feeling, once your first shot goes in, you feel like the next one will go in and the next one,” Hughes said.” (The first three) is the one that gave me my confidence.”

Hughes’ second consecutive three ball and third of the game prompted a Carmody timeout, but it didn’t help his team.

On Northwestern’s ensuing possession, senior guard Jason Bohannon fouled NU’s Michael “Juice” Thompson, sending him to the line to shoot 1-and-1. Thompson missed the front end, which allowed Hughes to drill another three on the other end.

It was all free throws from that point, and Wisconsin hit five to Northwestern’s two, sealing the 10-point road win for Bo Ryan’s squad.

When asked about the Wildcats after the game, Ryan praised the performance of Carmody’s squad, which has been short-handed since early November with senior forward Kevin Coble breaking his foot and senior guard Jeff Ryan suffering an ACL injury.

“This is a tough place to play because of how well [the Wildcats] play here,” Ryan said of Welsh-Ryan Arena. “That’s a very good team out there. We beat a very good team.”

Ryan’s Badgers beat a tough Northwestern squad, and it did not come easy.

The game was a back-and-forth affair for much of the night, with the largest lead by either team coming in the final seconds when junior forward Keaton Nankivil hit his second free throw to make it 60-50.

In the first half, the Wildcats jumped out to their biggest lead of the night just three minutes in, going up 7-2 and making it clear it would be a long night for their opponents. The Badgers never backed down, however.

They came back quickly to tie the game at nine points apiece four minutes later and led for much of the first half. They never led by more than three points before halftime, though, and the teams went to the half tied at 27.

Over the first 20 minutes, it was Taylor and Bohannon who kept the Badgers in it. Taylor had seven of his 10 points before the break while Bohannon posted 10 on 5-of-7 shooting despite going 0-for-2 from beyond the arc.

“A lot of people think with the zone you’ve got to launch the threes,” Bohannon said. “If the shots are there, you can put them up, but a lot of times it’s that back side that’s open. We did a good job of penetrating and finding the open guy.”

Wisconsin trailed for much of the second half before Hughes’ outburst. The Badgers’ struggles were exemplified by a six-minute stretch in which Northwestern held Ryan’s squad scoreless.

Fortunately for UW, though, they held strong defensively, allowing only three points over the same stretch.

In the grand scheme of things, Wednesday night’s win was just one of 14 so far for UW and one of four in Wisconsin’s first five conference games. What is more important about the win is what the Badgers did not do in Evanston.

They did not turn the ball over — just five on the night — and they did not lose on the road in their first game without Leuer.

“That was a big one for us without Jon, without one of our key players,” Hughes said. “To get this win under our belts, especially on the road, because we didn’t have too many of these (road wins) last year. It’s just motivation and a great confidence builder for us.”