Bo Ryan expected the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team's second game with Michigan in 20 days to be much different — and much closer — than the first.

"They're a pretty smart team. (John Beilein is) a pretty smart coach. And they'll take a look at the things that we hurt them with the first time," Ryan said, referring to the 16-point victory his team posted over the Wolverines in a Big Ten Conference opener in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Jan 2. "Now it's that chess game where everybody tries to take away something that maybe burned them the first time or improve in that area. And then you have to counter that, which has been going on forever in the Big Ten long before I got here, or any conference."

And Tuesday night, in their first instance of a second go-around with a team in league play this season, the 11th-ranked Badgers countered just enough to claim a 64-61 victory in front of a late-arriving sellout crowd of 17,190 at the Kohl Center.

"We just figured there was going to be a lot of games like this that are going to come down to the last three, four minutes. I think I said that months ago, and I'm not changing my mind," Ryan said. "We expected exactly that. We expected it to be a two-, three-possession game and if it was anything more than that, we would have had to really shut all their scorers down, and that wasn't going to happen."

Led by the offense of freshman guard Manny Harris, the Wolverines (5-14, 1-6 Big) made it a close game down the stretch after UW (16-2, 6-0) had opened a 51-42 lead with 8 minutes, 26 seconds to play.

The 6-foot-5 Harris, who finished with a game-high 26 points (11-for-19 shooting), converted a 3-point play and a pullup jumper in succession before UW junior swingman Joe Krabbenhoft answered with basket to make it 53-49 with 5:28 to play.

But back-to-back baskets by Michigan center Ekpe Udoh tied the game at 53 with 4:10 to play, and set the stage for a final stretch in which UW repeatedly had an answer to baskets by the Wolverines.

"Games like this, you're going to have that grind," Ryan said. "It's not that we weren't playing well. ... I liked our resilient response to their streaks."

After Udoh tied the game, sophomore guard Jason Bohannon put the Badgers back ahead by driving into the lane and converting a runner.

And junior forward Marcus Landry, who finished with a team-high 14 points, followed that up by tipping in a missed layup by sophomore guard Trevon Hughes (12 points) to make it 57-53 with 3:21 to go.

And after a 3-pointer by DeShawn Sims and another basket by Udoh sandwiched a basket from the paint by Krabbenhoft to make it 59-58 in favor of the Badgers with 2:03 left, UW made a big play on the defensive end.

As Harris drove into the paint, UW senior guard Michael Flowers poked the ball away. Krabbenhoft was able to gain control of the ball and call timeout from his knees with 50 seconds to go.

"Things weren't going that well, he probably felt in his mind, defensively," Ryan said of Flowers, who matched Landry with 14 points and spent much of his time defending Harris. "He was still trying to make a play, make a good play without fouling, and he did. And then Joe got on the floor and ended up getting it and getting a timeout. That was huge."

Even bigger was the way the Badgers followed that play up. After Hughes found himself trapped on the baseline after picking up his dribble on UW's ensuing possession, he was able to get the ball out to Landry on the right wing. And with the shot clock winding down, Landry drilled a 3 to give the Badgers a 62-58 cushion with 19.2 seconds remaining.

"I thought Trevon was going to come off the ball screen and shoot it so I was getting ready to go to the glass, but I saw that he kept driving," Landry said. "He picked up his dribble, so I was there to release him because he had nowhere to go. I came over and I was in a rhythm and I put it up there."

A pair of free throws by Bohannon provided a two-possession cushion with 6.1 seconds left, essentially sealing UW's 10th straight victory — the second-longest winning streak in Ryan's six-plus seasons — and keeping the Badgers atop the Big Ten standings.

"We were proud of ourselves, because those are the games you're going to have to win," Krabbenhoft said. "If you want to get — I'm not even going to say it because I don't want to say, you know, (a) Big Ten championship or anything like that — but if you want to get to that level, these are the games you're going to have to win in the Big Ten. And I'm just glad we came out on top tonight."