Badgers Out-Muscle Ohio State in Saturday Matinee, 92-82
MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Badgers notched their second win in a row in another weekend matinee, defeating Ohio State 92-82 on Saturday. After ending last weekend on a sour note with a loss to USC, the Badgers are back on track with another winning streak.
Against an underrated Buckeyes squad, Wisconsin won this game in an unlikely fashion: physicality and defense. The Badgers were extremely tough in this one, improving to 16-6 on the season and 8-3 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes are now 14-7 and 6-5 in conference play.
Aussie’s First Half Sparked the Badgers
After starting the game ice cold, going down 21-11 with 11:37 to play, Austin Rapp came alive for 19 points and four rebounds in 11 minutes. Aussie picking his spots perfectly, scoring off the ball while walling up against Ohio State’s bigs.
This is more of what Badger fans expected from Rapp at the start of the season. While most of the rotation couldn’t hit shots, the 6-foot-10 sophomore came up clutch and led a 38-22 run in the final 11:30 of the half.
Outside of Rapp, Wisconsin’s spark came from ball movement and a balanced shot diet. The team posted 57-47-100 first-half splits, taking 15 threes and 20 twos for 24 points in the paint.
Rapp, John Blackwell and Nick Boyd combined for 40 of Wisconsin’s 49 first-half points, up six at the break. The home team did a great job of limiting Ohio State’s shots inside the paint with just nine points at the rim.
With that being said, the Buckeyes found a rhythm from three, shooting 7-for-16 from deep in 20 minutes. Amare Bynum and Taison Chatman each notched 11 points.
While the paint defense was impressive, Ohio State grabbed nine first-half offensive boards for nine second-chance points.
Defense (Yes, Defense) Closed the Game
The second half started with some aggressive defense from the home team, limiting the Buckeyes to 29-0-75 shooting splits in the first 10 minutes.
While Ohio State’s guards did more of the work on offense, Wisconsin’s frontcourt was extremely physical. It certainly helped during a scoring drought that lasted over three minutes.
The Badgers weren’t so hot in the second half either, but 20 total fouls drawn put pressure on the Buckeye defense. UW outscored OSU in the paint, 42-30. It spoke to the home team’s ability to bang around inside, but also prevent damage on the other end.
A relatively even scoring distribution in the final 20 minutes was against Wisconsin’s general trend. But then again, so was the defense outweighing the offense for that stretch as well. Ohio State finished shooting 41% from the field and 35% from three.
Boyd (21), Rapp (19) and Blackwell (22) led the way, but Nolan Winter also reached his 10th double-double of the season. The seven-foot junior put up 11 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks. Aleksas Bieliauskas also finished in double figures with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Greg Gard and company will have six days of rest amid a two-game winning streak. The team will travel to Indiana next weekend to take on the 14-7 Hoosiers.
