WEST LAFAYETTE – T.J. Watt returned an interception 17 yards for a touchdown, and No. 6 Wisconsin scored 35 points in the final 8 1/2 minutes of the first half of a 49-20 victory against Purdue on Saturday.

Alec Ingold and Bradrick Shaw each scored twice during the flurry, helping the Badgers (9-2, 6-2 Big Ten, No. 7 CFP) to their fifth straight win overall and their 11th in a row in the series.

They can clinch the West Division title and earn a spot in the Dec. 3 conference championship game with a victory next weekend.

“What a play by T.J.,” Badgers coach Paul Chryst said. “To knock it down is a really good play. To get a pick is a really good play. To do both that changed (the game).”

But the Badgers needed a jump-start from backup quarterback Bart Houston to get going. After entering midway through the second quarter, Houston led the Badgers on an 87-yard drive that was capped by Ingold’s 1-yard plunge for a 7-3 lead. Watt picked off David Blough on the next offensive play.

Then Shaw scored on a 7-yard run with 3:03 left in the half. After another Blough interception, Houston hooked up with a wide-open Ingold on a 19-yard TD pass and Shaw added a 33-yard TD run in the last minute of the half.

During that stretch, the Boilermakers scored a 75-yard TD pass from Blough to DeAngelo Yancey, who finished with six receptions for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

“We knew we had to win the turnover battle,” Purdue interim head coach Gerad Parker said. “Early on, our defense bottled up the football. We lost some things in that turnover stretch in the second quarter.”

Corey Clement rushed for 112 yards and a touchdown for Wisconsin.

Purdue hopes to snap a three-game losing streak against rival Indiana. The Boilermakers haven’t lost the Old Oaken Bucket in four straight years since the 1940s.