Just six minutes stood between the Wisconsin men’s basketball team and what could have been a disappointing end to one of the best season’s in program history.

After holding the lead for the entire game against eighth-seeded Oregon in the third round of the NCAA tournament Sunday, No. 1 seed Wisconsin suddenly found itself tied with the Ducks at 52 with just under six minutes left in the game.

A return trip to the Sweet 16 in Los Angeles, and a second straight defeat of the Ducks in the third round of the tournament – wasn’t going to come easy.

But Wisconsin never hesitated with its back against the wall, going on a 10-2 run after Oregon had tied it, to pull ahead 62-54.  The Badgers never looked back from that point on en route to a 72-65 win over the Ducks Sunday in Omaha to advance to the West Region semifinals.

A trip to Los Angeles was in the cards.

Wisconsin will take on the four-seed, North Carolina, at 6:47 CST Thursday night at the Staples Center.

With 5:56 left in the game, the Ducks’ Dwayne Benjamin tied the game at 52 after he nailed a 3-pointer. But the Badgers (33-3) scored the next six points to take a 58-52 lead.

Sophomore guard Bronson Koenig broke the tie with a free throw and junior forward Sam Dekker followed that with five straight points including a three with 4:01 remaining in the game to put Wisconsin ahead by a half dozen.

From then on, Oregon (26-10) never got closer than six points the rest of the way as Wisconsin moved on to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season and the fourth time in the last five seasons. After the game was tied at 52, the Badgers outscored the Ducks 20-13 over the final 5:56 of the game.

The Badgers sealed the game after Big Ten Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky tipped in a Nigel Hayes missed free throw with 46 seconds left that extended Wisconsin’s lead to 10 at 66-56.

Dekker led the Badgers with 17 points on 6-for-12 shooting, while going 3-for-8 from beyond the arc, in addition to five rebounds. Kaminsky added another 16 points, going 6-for-13 from the floor, with seven rebounds and two assists while Hayes (14) and Koenig (12) also scored in double figures for the Badgers Sunday night.

Hayes led the Badgers in the first half, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the opening 20 minutes of play. Koenig was just 2-for-7 from the field Sunday but went 7-for-8 from the free-throw line.

Wisconsin also got a big boost from someone outside the starting rotation. Redshirt sophomore guard Zak Showalter came off the bench and scored five points with five rebounds and two assists in 15 minutes of action.

Earlier in the second half, Showalter scored on back-to-back possession with a layup and a three – just his second of the season – to extend Wisconsin’s lead to 45-37 with 10:45 left in the game.

To start the second half, the Badgers scored the first five points of the final 20 minutes to push a three-point halftime advantage to eight at 36-28. But they followed that by scoring only four points over the next five minutes and seven seconds. Showalter then sparked the Badgers’ scoring efforts with his lone three of the game.

Similarly, Wisconsin struggled to score to finish the first half, tallying only two points over the final four minutes and 23 seconds of the opening half. Pac-12 Player of the Year Joseph Young scored 14 of Oregon’s 19 points over the final 9:22 of the first half and finished the game with a game-high 30 points on 12-of-25 shooting, including a 2-for-6 mark from beyond the arc. Young also had four assists and three rebounds as the Ducks were down by just three, 31-28, going into halftime.

Jalil Abdul-Bassit (12) was the only other Oregon player in double figures Sunday night.

The Ducks outshot the Badgers, going 26-for-59 (44.1 percent) from the floor as a team while the Badgers went 22-for-51 (43.1 percent). Oregon was also 8-for-19 (42.1 percent) from three-point range, with Wisconsin going 7-for-23 (30.4 percent) from deep.

The Badgers were also outrebounded by the Ducks, 34-32, but in the end, it didn’t matter as Wisconsin will keep dancing, just two wins away from back-to-back trips to the Final Four.

Wisconsin will now take on the Tar Heels Thursday with a spot in the Elite Eight and West Regional final on the line. The winner of Wisconsin-North Carolina will take on the winner of No. 2 seed Arizona against No. 6 seed Xavier Saturday in Los Angeles.

North Carolina advanced to the Sweet 16 with a second round win over 13-seed Harvard on Thursday before knocking off fifth-seeded Arkansas Saturday.

The Badgers and Tar Heels last met in the NCAA tournament in 2008 in the Elite Eight. No. 1-seed North Carolina defeated No. 6 Wisconsin 88-82, as the Tar Heels moved on to the Final Four where they eventually won the National Championship.

The two schools most recently played together in 2011 in Chapel Hill as part of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. The No. 9 Badgers fell to the fifth-ranked Tar Heels 60-57.