In the opening 15 minutes both sides were playing in a manner where it could be anyone’s victory. Then the Wisconsin men’s basketball team reminded Ohio State why the Badgers are on top of the Big Ten Conference while the Buckeyes sit one spot above the bottom.
The Badgers opened the second half with a 10-point lead and capitalized on four consectutive Buckeye turnovers to go up by 20 in the first five minutes. This run led to the eventual 69-57 Wisconsin victory.
OSU attempted to make a comeback midway through the second half, but could only come within 12 during the rest of the contest.
“When they were trying to make that comeback, the crowd was starting to get back into it,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. “It was nice to be able to come back with some answers.”
Wisconsin came up with answers all evening, mainly from the three-point line. Guard Devin Harris was able to bang in 5-of-7 from behind the arc, adding to his total of 29 points. The Buckeyes chose to drive through the paint and look down low to the forwards and centers at the post.
“We thought that’s the way we wanted to start the game, and that’s the way we wanted to play – by going to our big men inside,” OSU coach Jim O’Brien said. “I thought we did a good job of that at the beginning of the game. Give Wisconsin credit – they did a very good job of stopping us inside.”
The Buckeyes first 16 points came from inside the paint. OSU guards JJ Sullinger and Tony Stockman started by driving the ball inside.
OSU was also able to get the ball to the post where Velemir Radinovic was positioned. He scored six points in the opening five minutes but did not get another chance to put the ball up except from the foul line.
“I was off to a pretty good start, but they were playing us pretty tough at the post,” Radinovic said. “The guards were looking for us, we just weren’t able to hold our man off.”
Meanwhile on the other end of the court, the Badgers failed to get the ball inside during the beginning of the first half against a Buckeye zone defense. Wisconsin chose to bang it out from the perimeter to make up for it.
The first two Wisconsin baskets were back-to-back treys by Harris and forward Zach Morley.
“It was a very good shooting night,” Harris said. “I got good shots early and was able to knock them down.”
After finding the zone ineffective outside, the Buckeyes started changing things up and worked with a man-to-man while pulling into a zone once in a while. O’Brien said the zone defense was an attempt to shut Harris out.
“It was clear that he had very good range, and he makes good shots,” O’Brien said. “We really thought we would have a tough time guarding him man-to-man, so we went zone. When he knocked in a couple of threes, that hurt that.”
While it was clear the Badgers out-shot the Buckeyes, they struggled to pull down rebounds. OSU finished with 41 rebounds to Wisconsin’s 24.
Shun Jenkins and Terence Dials led the way with 10 and eight, respectively for the Buckeyes.
“(OSU) did a great job of getting positioning,” Morley said. “It was very frustrating knowing things you should have done but didn’t and it allowed them to get rebounds.”
With a record of 1-5 in the Big Ten conference, the Buckeyes face the challenge of the road against Purdue Saturday.
