The Wisconsin Badgers fell short in a big way to the Ohio State Buckeyes on Tuesday evening, losing 86-69 on the road to fall to 18-8 and 10-5 in Big Ten play.
It was a big opportunity for the Badgers, who came off a huge week with wins over the Illinois Fighting Illini and Michigan State Spartans. Wisconsin was ranked No. 24 on Monday in the AP Top 25 and had a great chance to build on its resume with Ohio State and Iowa up this week.
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However, Wisconsin looked sluggish early against the Buckeyes and never recovered on Tuesday. The Badgers led for only 44 seconds and now will lose their last likely Quad 1A game on the schedule before the regular-season finale against Purdue.
Here are three quick takeaways from the Badgers 86-69 loss to Ohio State on Tuesday.
Three point shooting
Wisconsin has been hitting threes at a high rate, and they’ve been winning the last month. On Tuesday, the threes just weren’t falling. There were a couple of poor looks in the second half, but Wisconsin also missed some great looks and finished the game 7 of 26 from deep.
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Outside of Braeden Carrington, the Badgers had nothing from deep. The starters combined for just 2 threes on 12 attempts (John Blackwell hit one with a minute left), with a lot of those being great looks.
On the flip side, Wisconsin didn’t defend well at all from three, but Ohio State’s players also hit shots. The Badgers gave up a lot of good looks, and the Buckeyes made them pay, especially at the beginning of the game.
Ohio State hit 10 threes in the first matchup and followed that up with 11 on Tuesday, hitting at a 52.4 percent clip. Devin Royal was big with four threes, while Amare Bynum and Bruce Thornton had three each.
The free-throw line was also an issue. Wisconsin’s fatigue showed there, as it shot just 8 of 16 from the line. Do those eight points make a difference? No. But it also showed how the game played out for Wisconsin.
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Sloppy turnovers
Wisconsin struggled early, but it was never fully out of the game until the end. Still, it felt like the Badgers just didn’t settle down. There were several moments in the game after Ohio State scored where Wisconsin rushed down the court and into traffic, turning the ball over.
Nick Boyd and John Blackwell each had three turnovers, and they just struggled to stay in control. Andrew Rohde had a couple of careless turnovers with poor passes and was quickly pulled in the second half after one.
It was uncharacteristic because the Badgers had been quite good with turnovers during the past month after seeing struggles earlier in the year. It’s hard to come back from a double-digit deficit when you’re turning the ball over, and the Badgers saw that on Tuesday.
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Slow start
You can’t have slow starts on the road in the Big Ten quite often. Wisconsin got way behind the eight ball early, once again due to defensive struggles, and they just couldn’t really recover without the shooting on Tuesday.
Wisconsin fell behind 12-6 early, with Devin Royal scoring seven early points. That jumped to a 24-12 lead minutes later, and Royal was outscoring the Badgers with 14 points himself.
Ohio State controlled the pace of the game well in the first half, shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from three, while moving the ball really well. Wisconsin, on the other hand, had only one three in the first half on eight attempts.
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To overcome their 12-point halftime deficit, the Badgers needed a fast start in the second half. But they just never could get enough stops with a lacking offense and struggled to cut the lead to single digits.
It just wasn’t meant to be Wisconsin’s night. They didn’t have the effort needed and just couldn’t produce offensively to match the defensive ups and downs.
