The lone meeting of the regular season between the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team and Michigan State was televised on ESPN2 as part of the network's "Judgment Week."

And after 40 minutes of play inside the Kohl Center on Thursday night, a clear decision was rendered.

Behind a strong defensive effort, exceptional ball security and a game-high 16 points from senior center Brian Butch, the 10th-ranked Badgers delivered this verdict: A 57-42 Big Ten Conference victory over the
No. 19 Spartans in front of an energized sellout crowd of 17,190.

The victory — which was a single-season record 14th for UW in league play — allowed the Badgers (24-4 overall, 14-2 Big Ten) to remain atop the league standings.

With two games to play, UW sits a half-game ahead of Purdue and Indiana. Both the Boilermakers and Hoosiers have three games to play.

"The main thing is we're worried about the next one, but we do realize what's out there," Butch said. "(A Big Ten title) was one of our goals when we started the season out. We realize that we have a great opportunity. We've got two games left, but we can't look past one, so we're going to get ready for (Penn State on) Wednesday and make sure that we're ready to go."

Against a Spartans team looking to keep its own — albeit slim — league title hopes alive, the Badgers used some second-half separation to seal their fifth straight win.

After Michigan State (22-6, 10-5) pulled within 37-33 on a 3-pointer by senior guard Drew Neitzel — his only field goal of the game — with 9 minutes, 51 seconds to play, Butch answered with a pair of free throws to start a 10-1 UW run that was capped by a driving layup by sophomore guard Trevon Hughes to make it 47-34 with 5:36 to play.

After Raymar Morgan scored on a dunk with 4:36 to play to snap a more than 5-minute span between field goals for the Spartans, Butch followed up with a 3-pointer — his fourth of the game — and Hughes (13 points) banked in a 3-pointer at 3:17 to put the Badgers ahead 53-36.

At that point, the Spartans were left with virtually no shot to mount a comeback against a stout UW defense.

Michigan State, which entered the game shooting a Big Ten-best 48.7 percent from the field, finished at 34.5 percent against the Badgers en route to their second-lowest scoring output of the season.

"I just liked our consistency defensively and the fact that we limited some things," UW coach Bo Ryan said.

And the Badgers, in particular, limited Morgan and Neitzel.

Morgan, Michigan State's leading scorer (15.2 ppg), finished with seven points on 3-for-7 shooting while mainly matched against UW's Joe Krabbenhoft. And Neitzel (13.8 ppg) finished with three points on 1-for-10 shooting while being monitored by senior Michael Flowers.

"Our two best scorers just didn't score, and that made a big difference," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.

While the Badgers didn't fare that much better offensively by finishing at 38.8 percent from the field, they made 11 of 14 free throws — compared to three of five for the Spartans — and committed a school-record one turnover.

"How many times do you see a game with a team with one turnover, against a team that plays pretty good 'D' and will get in your shorts," Ryan said. "I don't know what else you can say. Statistics always speak in a loud tone. I've never coached in a game where that's happened. ... I don't know if it's ever happened. But our guys do value the ball."

And Ryan's team also values winning.

"All this team cares about is winning, no matter how it gets done," Butch said. "Game after game, for some reason, we've been finding a way to get it done. It's just because these guys in that locker room really care about winning, and it's a really, really unique thing."