INDIANAPOLIS >> Michigan State’s Big Ten Tournament run is over.

In Saturday’s semifinal at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse, top-seeded Michigan State lost, 77-74, to No. 4 seed Wisconsin in a comeback bid that fell short on the final shot. Moving on to March Madness with eyes on a deep postseason run, the lesson drawn from this loss is one the Spartans want to keep close to the heart.

“Just the little things really lost us this game today,” guard Jaden Akins said. “A lot of little, minor mistakes that we made came back to bite us. So we just gotta realize that it’s important for that not to happen if we want to make a run.”

This Big Ten Tournament, in many ways, is a dress rehearsal for the one-and-done nature of basketball in March. Michigan State (27-6) hadn’t been in the pressure cooker often this season, cruising to an outright Big Ten championship last week and taking an eight-game win streak into Saturday’s semifinal game.

The pressure got to Michigan State in Saturday’s loss. The glaring details showed it. No one had an answer for the Badgers’ John Tonje, who scored 32 points and set a Wisconsin school record at the Big Ten Tournament. Jeremy Fears Jr. (14 points) missed the last shot — one of six misses on the final seven shots — while hoping for a foul, as Tonje stripped the ball.

Tre Holloman took a technical foul for yelling at a referee early in an 11-0 Wisconsin run — “I just lost my mind,” Holloman reflected.

“Next time, there isn’t a next time,” Holloman said. “So I gotta learn now from it, and just let my game do the talking.”

The blame for Saturday’s early exit also goes to the little details the Spartans flubbed. Like when Jaxon Kohler missed a one-and-one free throw with 3:24 left in a 68-67 game. Or when Kohler sat most of the game because of foul trouble, Jase Richardson beside him early in the second half after two of his own quick and ill-advised fouls.

“We didn’t lose the game at the end of the game,” said Richardson, whose 21 points led Michigan State in scoring. “I felt we lost the game a little bit earlier. I mean, those just little plays at the end that we didn’t capitalize on — the floaters, the box-outs, free throws — I feel like those were the plays that we missed that we could have won the game on.”

Mistakes happen in basketball games, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was sure to emphasize after the game. Making them repeatedly is Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the Spartans can’t afford these mistakes next time, when a loss in the NCAA Tournament would end their season.

“It was more than a technical; it was more than a couple missed cut-outs — some of our upperclassmen just don’t get to do those things,” Izzo said. “And what we learned from it, I don’t know. You know, kids don’t learn as fast as they used to. When a player confronts a player, then they’ll start learning.”

Michigan State held Wisconsin to 9-for-29 shooting from behind the arc, a day after its 19 3-pointers in a single game against UCLA tied a Big Ten Tournament record. Michigan State opened the game in control as strong 3-point shooting from Richardson and Akins keyed a 13-4 lead.

Wisconsin chipped away bucket by bucket before the Spartans went the final five minutes without a field goal. The Badgers led, 37-33, at halftime, a trailing position Michigan State had crawled out from frequently during its crowning win streak.

Even this time, Michigan State pulled even and even ahead. After Wisconsin free throws, a 12-2 run out of halftime saw the Spartans flip the script. Carson Cooper factored in heavily, as the center made up for Kohler’s absence with a putback finish and a reverse layup to tie the game. By the time Coen Carr finished off a signature dunk for a 45-41 lead with 15:55 to play, Michigan State had seized control.

Then, the details lapsed. Holloman’s technical helped Wisconsin’s big run, Tonje scoring nine of those points, including an elbow 3-pointer to take the lead at 14:37. Even as Richardson hit two 3s and all three free throws on a foul to draw even at 60 apiece, the mistakes set in for Michigan State

With 5:55 to play, Wisconsin took the lead right back on a John Blackwell and-one and never trailed the rest of the way. Drawing within a single point after a Kohler fadeaway at 4:19, Michigan State hit one shot — a 3 from Kohler — in the final four minutes.

Clutch free-throw shooting from Richardson and Fears gave the Spartans a chance to tie, and made it a 75-74 game with 14.9 seconds to play. But the equalizer never fell.

“I wish we could have won. It hurts that we didn’t make it,” Kohler said. “But sometimes in a hard situation like this, you gotta look at the positives. And one of the biggest positives that I see is that this is going to light a fire under us. And for everyone on this team, that’s exactly what we need.”

Heading into Selection Sunday, Michigan State will likely land a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where “something so small can change the game,” as Fears put it. Saturday’s loss in the Big Ten Tournament is a reminder that a longer run in March will require cleaner details.

“We can do a lot of things. We could have won this tournament,” Izzo said. “It’s not what you can do, it’s what you do do. … I think this team has performed way above where they are and yet, I think there’s a ceiling yet to get to. And that’s going to be my job in the next five days.”