Wisconsin broke a 4 game losing streak and in the process extended Ohio State’s 13 plus month, now 16 game road losing streak, taking control late in the first half and holding off the visiting Buckeyes 62-54 to move to 17-8 and 9-5. The Buckeyes dropped to 14-11, 4-10.  Ohio State fell behind by as much as 17 before closing to within 5 but could not get any closer. Bruce Thornton scored 16 of his game high 18 points in the second half in an attempt to rally the Buckeyes, while Evan Mahaffey and Roddy Gayle each added 10. Wisconsin was led by Steven Crowl’s 16, A.J. Storr’s 14 and Tyler Wahl’s 10. The Buckeyes shot it at a 41% clip, including 7 of 18 from long range, while Wisconsin hit on 44% of their shot attempts and 7 of 21 from beyond the arc. After Wisconsin dominated the glass in the first half, Ohio State did a better job in the second half, but still lost the rebounding battle 39-26. The Badgers pulled down 12 offensive rebounds compared to just 7 for Ohio State leading to a 17-7 advantage in second chance points. That, combined with a huge differential at the stripe, 11 of 16 for Wisconsin compared to just 1 of 3 for Ohio State, was the difference in the game. 

It was all Badgers early, getting anything they wanted in the half court in the opening minutes, as Wisconsin took a 10-4 lead into the first media timeout with Ohio State’s only buckets coming off of a pair of Roddy Gayle feeds to Evan Mahaffey deep in the post for dunks. Coming out of the timeout, the Buckeye defense forced a shot clock violation and on the other end, Mahaffey grabbed an offensive rebound and scored off the glass, cutting into the Badger lead. The Badger lead increased by 1 when one of two free throws dropped, but Ohio State got a little closer when Gayle penetrated the left baseline and found Devin Royal with a wrap-around pass, who finished with a flush and at the under 12 media timeout the Badgers led 11-8. Out of the timeout, Gayle drilled a 3 from the right point to knot the score. Wisconsin broke the tie with a pair of free throws, but the Buckeyes tied it up quickly when Mahaffey took a Bruce Thornton pass mid-paint and drilled a 10 footer.  Wisconsin went on a 5-0 run before Gayle knocked down another triple from the top and at the under 8 media timeout, Wisconsin led 18-16. Ohio State got even out of the timeout when Thornton found Gayle on the right block for a dunk, but a pair of Badger free throws enabled Wisconsin to break the tie and regain the lead. Ohio State cut the lead to 1 when Bowen Hardman split a pair of free throws, but a pair of offensive rebounds by the Badgers led to a triple increasing the lead to 4 and after a Buckeye turnover led to a Wisconsin dunk, Ohio State took a timeout with 4 minutes remaining in the first half and Wisconsin on a 7-1 run to lead 25-19. Ohio State cut into the lead when Thornton went around a Zed Key screen and hit a pullup jumper from the left elbow, but 9 straight Badger points to close the half ballooned the lead to 13 at the break. The Badgers outscored the Buckeyes 16-3 over the final 5 minutes as Ohio State went ice cold from the floor, chucking 3 after 3 to no avail, allowing Wisconsin to take a 34-21 lead into the locker room. The Buckeyes were dominated in all facets, shooting just 34.6% to Wisconsin’s 45.8%. The Buckeyes hit just 2 of 9 from 3, while Wisconsin made 4 of 10. The Badgers absolutely throttled Ohio State on the glass, out rebounding the Buckeyes 22-9, including 6 of the offensive variety leading to 9 second chance points. The Badgers also made 8 of 10 from the stripe compared to just 1 of 2 for Ohio State. Roddy Gayle and Evan Mahaffey each had 8 to lead Ohio State. Wisconsin was led by Steven Crowl’s 12 and A.J. Storr’s 10. 

The Badgers scored first to open the second half to extend the lead, but Thornton drilled a 3 from the top to cut the lead back to 12. Wisconsin scored the next 4 to increase their lead to 16 before Thornton dropped in a floater. The lead went to 17 when a triple dropped, but Thornton got to the rim on the other end and scored off the glass and at the first media timeout of the second half, Wisconsin was in control, leading 43-28. Wisconsin split a pair of free throws out of the timeout and a Mahaffey dunk on the other end cut the deficit to 14. After a defensive stop, Hardman buried a three from the left wing, cutting the lead to 11. After a Badger bucket, Gayle got to the rim and scored with a reverse lay up. Wisconsin answered again before Felix Okpara scored at the rim. Another offensive rebound for the Badgers turned into a put back, keeping Ohio State at arm’s length. Thornton knocked down an off-balance three at the end of the shot clock to answer and Chris Holtmann took a quick timeout with 11:21 left in the game and Wisconsin leading 50-40. The Buckeyes came out of the timeout in a zone defense, forcing a miss and on the other end, Hardman drilled a triple from the top and Gayle stole the ensuing inbounds pass giving the ball back to Ohio State and when the ball was knocked loose off a Badger, the under 12 media timeout was taken with Wisconsin’s lead sliced to 50-43. An Okpara offensive rebound created a second chance for the Buckeyes and Royal scored off the window, cutting the Badger lead to 5. A Badger triple stopped the Ohio State run, but a Thornton floater answered and at the under 8 media timeout, Wisconsin led Ohio State 53-47. A Badger steal and score extended the lead and Wisconsin took a timeout with just over 5 to go leading by 8. The Badgers went back up 10 with 4 to go and after Ohio State missed their 9th straight shot attempt, before Thornton finally got one to go, hitting a floater off the glass, stopping a nearly 7 minute scoring drought and Ohio State took a timeout with 1:36 to play and Wisconsin leading 57-49. A Wisconsin 3 slammed the door on Ohio State, putting the Badgers up 11 with less than a minute to go. Thornton scored at the rim and a foul put the Badgers on the line with 23 seconds to play. Both free throws dropped and on the other end Jamison Battle buried a three but it would be too little too late. Another foul put the Badgers back on the stripe where they missed the front end.  Ohio State had 2 chances at the rim that fell off target ending the ballgame. 

It was a physical game from start to finish, and quite honestly, physical isn’t a strong enough adjective to describe what Wisconsin was doing, and Ohio State could not match the physicality as Wisconsin just mauled Ohio State and never allowed the Buckeyes to get into any rhythm offensively for the majority of the night. The Buckeyes made a charge midway through the second half and overall played better basketball, but ultimately, untimely mistakes and the inability to convert at the rim on several offensive trips cost Ohio State in their comeback attempt. It’s the same story almost every time out with this basketball team. They are close, they play hard in stretches, but they just don’t have enough to win games. Yes, they are young, but that can’t be an excuse anymore. They didn’t get any help from the officials, as evidenced by the free throw disparity, but that has to be expected on the road in the Big Ten Conference so they can’t use that as an excuse either. There are a lot of Big Ten basketball games under the belts of the leaders of this team and continuing to play such poor basketball in stretches is just unacceptable and until they can find some consistency, they will find wins hard to come by. They’ll try to upset one of the nation’s best at home on Sunday afternoon, but that will be a monumental task. 

The Buckeyes head back home welcoming 2nd ranked Purdue to the Schott on Saturday afternoon. Tip time is scheduled for 1 PM, airing on CBS.

-Jason Harris