With their coach watching nervously in the locker room, the Wolves turned a 13-point third-quarter deficit into a stirring 106-104 victory at Target Center that ran their winning streak to five games and kept them undefeated in the new year.

Randy Foye scored 10 of his 11 points in the fourth quarter, and Rodney Carney had a season-high 22 off the bench for the Wolves (11-25), who had to sweat out a Michael Redd miss in the final seconds to notch their seventh win in the past nine games.

Add the fact that Minnesota ended the game without star center Al Jefferson, who fouled out with 1:29 to play, and Foye called it the most fun he's had since his rookie year.

"This was fun tonight," he said. "I can't even express how I feel about the way we came back and won. This was a tremendous game, and it was all fun. The crowd was great tonight. The sixth man really kicked in when we needed them to."

Foye blamed foul trouble for his slow start, and the Wolves couldn't seem to get a break from the officiating crew.

McHale said he was ejected after questioning referees Tommy Nunez Jr. and Sean Corbin about two first-quarter plays: a traveling violation on Jefferson and a non-call on a shot where the coach believed Mike Miller was fouled.

"I wasn't yelling. I wasn't screaming," McHale said. "I just asked the guy, I said, 'I can't talk to you?' I found out that I guess the answer is, no you can't."

McHale said he couldn't remember the last time he was ejected from a game and that he wouldn't have slept all night if the Wolves had lost by two.

He also said it was much tougher watching the game from the locker room than on the bench, although he at least had some company in assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg.

"Freddie came back and consoled me, so I had Freddie there for me," McHale said. "Then a couple of the video guys, so I wasn't all alone. I felt like I was all alone there for a while."

Wearing their blue road uniforms on their home court, it didn't look like the Wolves' night, for starters, as the Bucks (18-21) led by as many as 14 points in the first quarter.

With assistant coach Jerry Sichting replacing McHale on the Wolves' bench, the Wolves never caught up until Foye hit a three-pointer to give them an 89-88 edge with 8:42 to play.

Richard Jefferson made a basket while falling to the floor and hit a free throw for a 96-91 Milwaukee lead with 6:50 remaining, but Sebastian Telfair got the Wolves even with two free throws, and Al Jefferson pulled them into a 100-100 tie with 3:12 to play.

Foye followed with a go-ahead three-pointer and hit a layup for a 105-102 advantage with 1:46 remaining.

That was it for Al Jefferson, who fouled out 17 seconds later and said he couldn't bear to watch Redd's last-second miss after Telfair had split a pair of free throws to put the Wolves up two with 9.6 seconds left.

"I had my head down and closed my ears," Jefferson said. "I didn't want it to go to overtime."

Thanks to some good defense from Carney, it never came to that for the Wolves, who overcame the hot-shooting Bucks and what could have been some demoralizing calls to post their most inspirational victory of this improbable month.

"There are nights like that, man," Jefferson said. "That's the beauty of this win. We still pulled it out. Even with all the negative stuff that was going on, we still pulled it out."

The Wolves will be back at Target Center on Tuesday to face the Miami Heat.