Any concerns No. 20 Wisconsin (9-4 Big Ten, 18-8 overall) would come out flat with No. 13 Ohio State (8-5, 18-7) in town, went out the door within a few minutes of play Sunday at the Kohl Center. With the two sides knotted up at 6 in the early stages, Wisconsin held the Buckeyes without a field goal (0-of-14) for nearly nine minutes while scoring 18 unanswered points to put things out of reach for OSU. The visitors wouldn’t pull any closer than 13 the rest of the way, dropping a 71-49 contest—their third loss in the last four games.
The Badgers’ five-minute scoreless stretch to end regulation Thursday in Minneapolis led to a 58-53 overtime win for the Gophers, halting a three-game winning streak for Wisconsin. It could certainly be argued UW let one slip away in the midst of a heated Big Ten title hunt, and the Badgers could very well have come out deflated Sunday.
However, Wisconsin shot a season-best 52.7 percent (29-of-55) in its win over Ohio State, assisting on 16 of its 29 made field goals.
Although head coach Bo Ryan thought the Badgers turned things around offensively Sunday, he said a big key was UW maintaining its intensity on the defensive end from Thursday.
“Sometimes when you have a bad game and the ball doesn’t go down, you let it affect other things,” Ryan said. “The key with our guys is they never took a step backwards defensively or on the glass as far as how aggressive they’re gonna play.”
The teams’ shooting performances Sunday were nearly inversed of the previous meeting Jan. 29, a 58-49 victory for OSU. Wisconsin shot 36.5 percent in Columbus to the Buckeyes’ 51.5 percent mark, while Ohio State’s 37.5 percent Sunday paled in comparison to the Badgers’ 52.7 percent.
While the roles might have switched between the teams’ two matchups this season, UW’s shooting performance Sunday reminded Ohio State head coach Thad Matta of a Badgers-Buckeyes matchup two seasons ago in Columbus, a regular-season finale that OSU would win in a blowout, 93-65. The then-No. 1 Buckeyes shot 68.1 percent from the floor, including a staggering 14-of-15 from 3-point range.
“This was the flip of two years ago at our place,” Matta said. “I’m sitting over there kind of like, ‘My gosh, I’ve seen this before but on the other side of it.’”
The Badgers took 19 shots from beyond the arc on 55 total shot attempts, which was a much different approach from the teams’ previous meeting this season, when UW took 28 3-point shots on 52 field goal attempts. Wisconsin had a lot of success finding cutters in the lane and penetrating to the bucket, especially in the second half—UW’s first 3-point attempt in the second half came at the 13:26 mark.
Ryan said the Badgers were successful in cutting through Ohio State’s defense because they reacted to OSU’s over-aggressive play.
“They were overplaying; they were getting into us a little bit,” Ryan said. “Nobody’s gonna let you get directly to the rim, but we attacked some angles and driving lines, which forced some help, which allowed us to kick to people.”
Four UW players scored in double digits, with junior guard Ben Brust and redshirt senior forward Jared Berggren leading the way with 15 points each. Brust also added 11 rebounds to record his fifth double-double of the season. Freshman forward Sam Dekker finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, and sophomore guard Traevon Jackson scored all of his 10 points in the second half.
Redshirt senior forward Ryan Evans, who missed practice Saturday with an illness, started for Wisconsin and played 24 minutes, scoring 9 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
