The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team (14-10, 7-6 Big Ten) took control early and never let go en route to a 70–57 win over The Ohio State University (15-8, 5-7) at the Kohl Center Sunday afternoon.
The Badgers may just be the best home team in the country, as they moved to 11-1 at the Kohl Center with Sunday’s win. Following a brutal road loss at Minnesota, the Badgers found their “home magic” with a 16–0 run at the end of the first half and 19 points from Brevin Pritzl.
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With Wisconsin rocking their 1999-2000 Final Four throwback — which should immediately be made the permanent home uniform — the matchup started slow before Wisconsin blew up out of nowhere.
Through the first five minutes, the score was deadlocked at 3–3, with both sides locking down on defense and settling for bad shots on the offensive end.
It remained tight through the 4:37 mark, after a three from Ohio State’s Andre Wesson cut the Badger’s lead down to two.
From that point until the first half buzzer sounded, Wisconsin took over. Pritzl and D’Mitrik Trice hit two three-pointers each to cannonball UW’s lead to 16, and a pair of free throws from Nathan Reuvers with one second on the clock had Ohio State reeling headed into halftime.
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To start the second half, the Buckeyes went on a 7–0 run of their own before Pritzl broke the tie with his fourth deep ball of the game. Just a few minutes later, Pritzl hit another pair of shots to put him at 19 points on the afternoon.
Wisconsin continued to pour it on, going up by as much as 24, but Ohio State kept it somewhat close as it wound down and cut the lead to 13 as time expired.
Along with his big day from downtown, Pritzl hauled in five rebounds and had two steals in one of his best games of the season.
Aleem Ford was the only other double-digit scorer, finishing with 10 points and nine rebounds. Wisconsin also got nine each from Micah Potter and Nathan Reuvers, along with eight each from Trice and Trevor Anderson.
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Wesson finished as the only Buckeye in double figures and hit three of the teams six three-pointers. OSU shot just 6-19 from three-point land as a team.
It was an important win for UW, a program that has been clouded in controversy since Kobe King left. More recently, longtime trainer Erik Helland resigned amid reports he used a racial slur while recounting his time in the NBA with UW student-athletes.
Some have speculated the two incidents may be connected, but UW Athletics issued a statement saying there has been no evidence of this.
The Badgers will head to Lincoln next Saturday for a road battle with Nebraska, and we’ll see if this team can finally get it done away from the Kohl Center. Until then, hopefully “Wisconsin Basketball” can keep itself out of the headlines.
