IOWA CITY -- The Wisconsin Badgers dramatically improved their NCAA Tournament resume Wednesday, upsetting the eighth-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes 67-59 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

It was Wisconsin's ninth victory in its last 10 games and the Badgers (18-10, 10-5) have four wins over ranked opponents in Big Ten play, including two this month on the road.

"For our guys to be able to come in here, with as good a team as (Iowa coach Fran McCaffery) has, to be able to play and answer them punch for punch so to speak I thought really showed the maturity of our guys and how much they've grown in the 60, 70, 80 days since Dec. 16 when I took over," Wisconsin interim coach Greg Gard said. "We didn't play as good as we can play, but we were able to find enough answers."

As for the Hawkeyes (20-7), this was their second straight defeat and they sit one game behind No. 18 Indiana for first place in the conference standings, dropping to 11-4 in league play.

Two areas proved to make a difference for the Badgers on this night. One was the play of Wisconsin's bench, particularly guards Khalil Iverson and Jordan Hill. Both finished with nine points as the Badgers held a 23-4 edge in bench points. Iverson provided the highlight of the night with a nasty two-handed dunk in the second half that put Wisconsin up 53-51.

"Vitto (Brown) threw me a nice backdoor pass and I think it was (Jarrod) Uthoff who came over and I didn't want him to block the shot," Iverson said. "So I tried to pump fake and then still dunk the ball and I got it."

The other area was 3-point shooting. The Badgers shot 6-of-14 from behind the arc in the second half and finished 43.5 percent from 3-point range. With the game tied at 56, Wisconsin went ahead on a 3-pointer by junior guard Bronson Koenig.

Shortly after a pair of free throws by Iowa senior forward Jarrod Uthoff cut the Hawkeyes' deficit to one, the Badgers drained another 3-pointer when junior forward Nigel Hayes connected to extend Wisconsin's lead to 62-58 with 1:42 remaining.

"They left their shooters open and fortunately, we were able to make shots," said Hayes, who finished with 10 points. "When we're doing that and we're also getting to the lane and then we're playing good defense, we can always have a chance to win the game."

Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes wound up losing their first home game in more than a calendar year despite an 18-rebound performance from senior center Adam Woodbury.

What ultimately cost Iowa was shooting 18 for 55 from the floor, which included missing 14 of its last 16 shots.

Despite finishing with 11 points, senior forward Jarrod Uthoff shot 3 for 12 from the floor and was in foul trouble for most of the evening.

"I think it got him sideways," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said in reference to Uthoff's four fouls. "In the first half, he hit that 3 early, but I thought he was effective. I thought he was active and he got his second foul. Then of course, he gets his third foul early (in the second half). He sat for a while and that's hard."

In the first half, the bright spot for Iowa was junior guard Peter Jok scoring 17 of the Hawkeyes' 34 first-half points and doing so on 4-of-7 shooting, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc. The Badgers kept Jok in check during the second half as he ended up finishing with 21 points and only made one bucket after the break.

Both teams play their next games Sunday. Iowa travels to Ohio State, while Wisconsin hosts Michigan. In the case of the Hawkeyes, they remain in contention for a Big Ten regular season title. But the path just became more difficult.

"We're the same team that beat Marquette, we're the same team that beat Michigan State," Woodbury said. "Some days, you don't have it. We've got to be better."

NOTES: Wednesday's game marked the fourth time this season Iowa wore its alternate gold uniforms. The Hawkeyes won all three of their previous games wearing gold against Marquette on Nov. 19, Michigan State on Dec. 29 and Rutgers on Jan. 21. ... Wisconsin has posted a winning record in Big Ten play for the 16th straight season, which ties the longest such streak of any Big Ten team held by Purdue from 1972-1988. ... Wednesday marked the fifth time F Jarrod Uthoff has played against the Badgers since transferring from Wisconsin to Iowa following the 2011-12 season, which he redshirted. In four previous contests against the Badgers, Uthoff has averaged 8.3 points and 3.3 rebounds.