Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 21 points and Trey Burke had 18 points and nine assists to help No. 5 Michigan stave off No. 9 Minnesota 83-75 on Thursday night, after falling at rival Ohio State four days before.

“We came out with a higher intensity than last game and set the tone first,” Burke said, adding: “We got our confidence back, and that’s important.”

Hardaway hit four 3-pointers in the first half for the Wolverines (17-1, 4-1 Big Ten), who held the lead for the final 33 minutes of the game and finished with 13 steals to fuel their fast break. Nik Stauskas added 11 points, and now Michigan has a week to rest before a home game against Purdue.

“When you don’t lose very often, they really hit hard,” coach John Beilein said. “I think it’s important for your mental health.”

Austin Hollins led the Gophers (15-3, 3-2) with 21 points and four steals, and Trevor Mbakwe had 13 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Andre Hollins was drawn into early foul trouble, but he came alive after halftime to finish with 13 points and four assists.

The Gophers crept back in the game after falling behind by 19 points early in the second half but squandered some opportunities to really make the Wolverines worry. Joe Coleman missed three of four free throws in the final 4 minutes.

Rodney Williams cut the margin to 77-70 with 2:40 remaining and the Gophers got the ball back, but a 3-pointer by Williams rolled off the rim and Andre Hollins had his put-back attempt blocked underneath.

Burke stretched the lead to nine points with two free throws with 43 seconds left, effectively sealing another signature victory for the Wolverines.

“We’re going to have to do something out of the ordinary to be in the Big Ten hunt,” Beilein said. “Every team is going to have to do that.”

Michigan moved into a four-way tie for second place in the stacked conference behind surprisingly unbeaten Wisconsin. Minnesota lost its second straight game after falling 88-81 at Indiana last Saturday. The Wolverines have beaten the Gophers in eight of their last nine meetings.

“It’s very big, especially for our young guys,” Hardaway said. “It shows that they can win through adversity and they can limit mistakes. It shows that we can trust them and we know that they can handle it.”

This was the first game at Williams Arena pitting two top-10 teams in The Associated Press poll since Michigan visited Minnesota in 1977, and the fans at “The Barn” raised the noise level to the occasion. In the first 4 minutes, Andre Hollins and Austin Hollins both swished 3-pointers and Mbakwe blocked two turnaround shots by Jordan Morgan, just the right way to rev up the crowd.

The Gophers are built around an aggressive, athletic defense that coach Tubby Smith has long employed, but the Wolverines can guard people, too, and they made the Gophers pay nearly every time they made a rushed, forced or panicked pass under heavy ball pressure. The Wolverines entered the game with the fewest fouls in the nation at 11.6 per game, and they emerged from this physical contest with ripped jerseys by three players (Burke, Stauskas and Morgan) and more moxie for the rest of the way.

“Got cuts and everything. But it’s great. That’s Big Ten basketball,” Hardaway said. “Just trying to embrace it as much as possible.”

Hardaway knocked down his share of shots to deflate the Gophers defense and keep the fans from overtaking the game.

“He’s got a presence on this team, both offensively and defensively,” Beilein said. “That is really making our guys go.”

Austin Hollins, the Gophers’ best defender, slowed him down after halftime, but the damage was done.

“He’s a talented player,” Hollins said, adding: “I did what I could. He made a lot of tough shots.”

The Wolverines, who matched the best start in program history at 16-0, fell behind by 21 points in the first half of their 56-53 loss to the Buckeyes last Sunday. This time they took better care of the ball and forced enough misses and turnovers by the Gophers to ignite their breath-taking fast break.

Minnesota’s backups collectively struggled, and the Wolverines took advantage during a 2-minute stretch in the middle of the first half after Andre Hollins picked up his second foul. Julian Welch, the one second-stringer who contributed, scored eight points in the first half.

Burke found Hardaway streaking ahead of him and zinged a perfect lob pass for a dunk with 3:11 left in the half. That came right after the Gophers cut the lead to two, the closest they came in the final 33 minutes.

Then the duo did it again shortly after halftime, pushing Michigan ahead 42-32. The Wolverines put together a 20-7 run to stretch the lead to 56-37, punctuating the takeover with a steal by Glenn Robinson III near midcourt from Williams and a 360-degree dunk on the other end.

With his team trailing 36-30 at halftime, Smith expected the second-half surge to come right away.

“It was just the opposite. Usually we respond much better than that, but I don’t know what happened there,” he said.

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After No. 1 Duke lost to North Carolina State a day earlier, the Wolverines were in prime position to ascend to No. 1 for the first time since November 1992. Instead, they went home with their first loss, also depriving them of the best start in school history.

“Some go in and some don’t,” said Burke, a sophomore who just happens to be from Columbus and is friends with several of the Buckeyes. “I thought it was going in. It looked good. I think it went in and then came out.”

Michigan (16-1, 3-1 Big Ten) trailed 52-50 and had the ball as the seconds sifted away. Everyone in a hoarse, capacity crowd of 18,809 knew that Burke, a star at Columbus’ Northland High School where he was a teammate of former Buckeye Jared Sullinger, would likely take the last shot.

Aaron Craft — whom Michigan coach John Beilein said was as good as any defender he had ever seen — prevented Burke from driving. His path blocked, Burke jumped back and then launched the shot.

“We were up two, so that makes it a little more challenging for me,” said Craft, selected as the Big Ten’s top defender a year ago. “Fortunately enough for me, that shot he took rimmed in and out. I kind of turned around (and saw) we grabbed the rebound.”

Lenzelle Smith Jr. grabbed the rebound. A moment later he was fouled again and hit two free throws for breathing room. Craft, who had struggled on offense most of the season, then made two more foul shots to more than offset Burke’s circus 3-pointer with a second left.

The Buckeyes had done most of their offensive damage early, following Burke’s opening 3-pointer with a 16-0 run that was started and ended with baskets by Deshaun Thomas, who led the Buckeyes (13-3, 3-1) with 20 points. From there on, it was just a matter of whether Ohio State — which had blown a late lead at Duke in November — could hold off the Wolverines, who came in averaging 81 points a game with four starters in double figures.

Burke led Michigan, which was trying to exceed the 16-0 start of the 1985-86 team, with 15 points. Tim Hardaway Jr. added 12. Down 21 points in the first half, Michigan kept chipping away.

The Wolverines switched defenses, causing the Buckeyes problems with matchup zones. Eventually, Glenn Robinson III flipped in a 3-pointer from the right wing to tie it at 46 with just under 6 minutes left.

The Buckeyes regained some momentum when Shannon Scott fed post player Evan Ravenel for a dunk to regain the lead. On the next possession, Ohio State went inside again and Ravenel, averaging 6.3 points a game, bulled his way for another basket.

After another Michigan missed shot, Thomas took a pass on the left baseline and made a quick spin to the end line before banking in a shot for a 52-46 lead.

The Wolverines missed six straight field goal attempts down the stretch, going scoreless for more than 4 minutes until Burke hit two free throws with 1:37 left to cut the lead to 52-48.

A steal and dunk by Robinson made it 52-50 with 1:16 left, setting up the potential tying shot by Burke, who grew up a rabid fan of the Buckeyes but wasn’t recruited by coach Thad Matta because he already had Craft and was close to signing Scott to play point.

“He got a heck of a look at it,” Matta said of Burke’s shot.

The Buckeyes have been at their best against their worst opponents, and vice versa. They came into the game 12-0 vs. unranked teams and 0-3 against those in the Top 25. But after what even the players called an up-and-down season, they came up especially big against their most heated opponent.

After Craft had discounted the possibility that the Buckeyes drew any extra incentive by wanting to prevent their archrivals from taking over the top spot in the polls, Ravenel spoke up.

“There’s always satisfaction in denying Michigan the No. 1 spot in the country,” he said with a wide grin.

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