The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team had a five-point advantage with less than four minutes to play but saw it slip away.

So, too, did its chance at staying in first place after a 69-65 loss to Michigan State, No. 18 UW’s second straight defeat without leading scorer Tyler Wahl (ankle).

The Spartans made their last eight shots from the field and erased the 59-54 advantage that UW took into the last media timeout.

“We didn’t execute on the last 10 possessions of the game on both ends of the floor like we have in the past,” Badgers coach Greg Gard said.

Stevens Point native Joey Hauser scored 20 points for the Spartans (12-4, 4-1 Big Ten), including a key go-ahead shot late.

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He came off a screen for a 3-pointer to put Michigan State in the lead with 2:20 remaining. UW’s Steven Crowl answered with a right-handed hook shot to make it 61-61.

The Spartans’ A.J. Hoggard and UW’s Chucky Hepburn traded baskets to send the game into the final minute tied.

Hoggard went up and under to put Michigan State up 65-63 and Hepburn missed an off-balance, long 3-pointer. Hoggard went to the line and made a pair of free throws for a four-point lead with 28.3 seconds left.

“We should have been able to close that out,” said Crowl, who scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half. “And that’s on all of us. That’s not one or two people. All of us did little things down the stretch that didn’t help us.”

The Badgers (11-4, 3-2) have lost 11 of their last 14 games against the Spartans.

Wahl wasn’t wearing the walking boot on Tuesday that he sported while he watched Saturday’s loss at Illinois. But he wasn’t ready to play because of the injury he suffered a week earlier. Gard didn’t know whether he’ll be available for Saturday’s game at Indiana; the Badgers are 0-3 without Wahl over the last two seasons.

Here are three things that stood out.

Wisconsin’s Tyler Wahl misses a second straight game with ankle injury

Crowl had just four points at halftime but made four of his first five shots in the second half to help drive UW’s offense and get them into the lead.

His right-handed hook shot in close put the Badgers up 47-46 with 10:28 remaining. He made another out of a timeout for a 59-54 lead with 4:11 left.

Crowl was 7 of 10 in the second half, continuing a trend of having better splits after the break. He had 13 and 18 points in the second half in his two previous games.

“Just probably getting more comfortable in the flow of the game,” Crowl said.

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UW got 17 of its 31 points in the first half from its reserves. Connor Essegian was 4 of 5 — and 2 of 2 on 3-pointers — for 10 points in 14 minutes. He scored only three points in 13½ minutes after the break.

“Shots were falling,” Essegian said. “That just came naturally. I wasn’t trying to force anything going out there, I was just out there playing. Second half, I did feel like they were tighter but that’s just the game of basketball. Adjustments are made.”

The Badgers had a 17-2 edge in bench scoring in the first half but Michigan State had a 6-3 edge in the second, when Spartans guard Tyson Walker limited Essegian’s productivity.

“They put their best defender on him and he wasn’t giving him any daylight,” Gard said. “We tried to loosen him up on a few things and Walker did a good job on him.”

Essegian had a 3-pointer roll out that would have put the Badgers ahead 62-58 just before Hauser hit his go-ahead 3-pointer.

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Hepburn went to the bench just 125 seconds into the game after committing a turnover, his first of three in the opening half. It wasn’t a long absence: He returned just 47 seconds later and had an active first half despite not taking a shot for the first 11½ minutes.

He made his initial try — a 3-pointer — that represented the first three points of eight straight in which he had a hand. He then made a block on a Hoggard shot but was called for an offensive foul on the ensuing possession.

Hepburn converted a three-point play with UW’s only free throw of the first half with 7:23 remaining after he made a shot on a drive. He added an assist for a Crowl basket but missed his final four shots of the half as Michigan State went into the break with a 33-31 advantage.

He was 2 of 5 from the field in the second half.

“I shot 4 of 11 (for the game),” Hepburn said as he studied the stat sheet after the game. “It’s not the best.”