With just under three minutes left in the first half against Wisconsin on Sunday, Michigan sophomore guard Jenny Ryan had the ball as the shot clock was winding down. With no other options, Ryan, who’s not known for her 3-point shooting ability, was forced to fire up an NBA-range bomb with a defender in her face. The ball sailed through the air and into the hoop — nothing but net.

It was one of four shot clock-buzzer beaters that the Michigan women’s basketball team made en route to a 75-59 victory over the visiting Badgers.

“We were very lucky,” Michigan coach Kevin Borseth said of the buzzer beaters. “They’re very good defensively. We just got a little bit unglued there for awhile and wound up a little grouped together, and luckily we made the shots.”

And although the Wolverines may have been lucky on a couple of possessions, luck wasn't the reason they were successful against the second-best defensive team in the Big Ten.

Michigan came out firing from the opening tip off. Junior Carmen Reynolds led the Wolverines early, scoring eight of the team’s first 15 points as Michigan jumped out to a 15-7 lead.

“The shots were falling,” Reynolds said. “It comes down to my teammates getting me open. We set some really good screens today.”

The Wolverines (3-2 Big Ten, 10-7 overall) enjoyed their biggest lead of the half with just under six minutes to play, as sophomore forward Sam Arnold came in off the bench and hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to increase the lead to 15 points.

Reynolds and senior guard Veronica Hicks paced the Wolverines with 10 points each, and Michigan went into the break with a 35-22 advantage.

Coming off of two straight 21-point performances, the Wolverines held 6-foot-4 Wisconsin forward Lin Zastrow to just 5 points in the first half.

“(Zastrow) is good,” Borseth said. “She is good on both sides of the ball. I’ll tell you what, she is as good of a big kid as any big kid in this conference. We had a week to work for this game, and I think that really helped us.”

Reynolds credited the Wolverines’ game plan for their success against Zastrow.

“We were told to front her, and we had backside help too,” she said. “It was a huge team effort. We were told to be physical with her to try and take the ball away, and that is what we were able to do.”

In the second half, Michigan showed few signs of letting up. Hicks capped a 13-3 run with a 3-pointer to give the Wolverines a commanding 19-point lead with less than 15 minutes to play.

But just when it seemed like the game was out of reach for the Badgers (4-2, 9-9), they went on a run of their own. Sophomore guard Taylor Wurtz caught fire, scoring all 14 of her points in the second half. And after a bucket inside by Zastrow with five minutes to play, the Michigan lead was cut to just seven — the slimmest margin since early in the first half.

And since the five Michigan starters played nearly the whole game — Hicks played all 40 minutes, while the other four played at least 33 minutes — fatigue became a factor in the closing minutes.

“We don’t want to have to do that,” Borseth said. “I told the kids after the game, 'it’s good because we won, but bad because I don’t know if we really got an opportunity to use everybody.' We want to be able to do that because all those kids work hard.”

But the Wolverines remained poised and confident down the stretch. Junior guard Courtney Boylan scored six of her 12 points in the final four minutes of the game, and Michigan went 8-for-8 from the charity stripe to put the game away.

Hicks, who led all scorers with 21 points and 10 rebounds, wasn’t concerned about the extended minutes.

"When you see the ball go in the basket, it gives you energy," she said. "I think that gave our starting five (energy) to stay on the court a little bit and get after it."