Junior forward Nigel Hayes scored 21 points pace Wisconsin to a 79-68 Big Ten Conference victory over Ohio State on Thursday at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.

Junior guard Bronson Koenig added 13 points and redshirt freshman Ethan Happ 12 for the Badgers, who won their fifth straight game.

Wisconsin (14-9, 6-4 Big Ten) was hot from beyond the arc, shooting 48.1 percent from 3-point range. Five players had two or more 3-pointers, as Koenig (3 for 7) and redshirt sophomore Jordan Hill (3 of 4) led the team from beyond the arc. Wisconsin's 13 3-pointers were a season high.

Freshman guard JaQuan Lyle paced the Buckeyes (14-10, 6-5) with 27 points, including 18 in the first half. Redshirt sophomore guard Kam Williams came off the Ohio State bench and contributed 10 second-half points in the only regular-season meeting.

Junior forward Vitto Brown scored seven points as the Badgers bolted to an 11-0 lead. Ohio State countered with a 10-3 run of its own -- with seven points from Lyle -- to stay close. Lyle's steal and lay-up pulled Ohio State within four at 14-10, with 14 minutes, 10 seconds of the first.

Brown finished with 12 points.

The Badgers extended a 38-32 halftime lead to as many as 12 points in the second half, but Lyle kept the Buckeyes within reach. Lyle's layup pulled the Buckeyes to 65-61 with 5:24 left. Sophomore forward Keita Bates-Diop drained two free throws with 4:24 to go to cut the Badgers' lead to 65-63.

Hill answered with a 3-pointer for Wisconsin with 1:39 to go, and the Badgers put it away at the free-throw line in the final minute.