Wisconsin’s four-game skid came to a halt Tuesday, holding off a second-half Buckeye surge to pick up their first victory since Jan. 26. The contest extended Ohio State’s road losing streak to 16 games, dating back to Jan. 1, 2023.
UW dominated the interior, outrebounding Ohio State 39–26 and scoring 17 second chance points to the Buckeyes’ seven. AJ Storr and Steven Crowl led the Badgers efforts on the glass, tallying 12 and 14 rebounds, respectively. Wisconsin also controlled the charity stripe, attempting 16 free throws and limiting Ohio State to just two attempts.
Chucky Hepburn and Max Klesmit turned in another excellent defensive performance, with Klesmit holding Jamison Battle – who entered the game averaging 14.2 points – scoreless until the final 30 seconds of game action, and Hepburn yielding 18 points on 19 field goal attempts to Ohio State point guard Bruce Thornton.
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Coming into the game, Hepburn knew that if he could slow down Thornton, the Badgers would be in a good spot.
“In the Big 10 most of the opponent’s teams start with the point guard,” Hepburn said post-game. “My main goal is to take the point guard out of the game because that kinda disrupts the rhythm of the opponent.”
On top of his defensive efforts, Hepburn was nearly perfect on offense, tallying nine points (3-5 FG), seven assists, five rebounds and no turnovers in 39 minutes of action.
Crowl paced the Badgers in points (16) and secured his sixth double-double of the campaign, while Storr locked down his second career double-double with 14 points and 12 boards (six offensive).
Coach Greg Gard had nothing but praise for Storr post-game.
“I thought AJ was really good for as hard as I’ve been on him,” Gard said. “I thought he really responded in terms of taking good shots, being aggressive at the rim and, defensively, very few mistakes. He was wired tonight and dialed in, which was good to see.”
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Outside of Thornton’s 18 points, Roddy Gayle Jr. and Evan Mahaffey were the only Buckeyes to finish in double-digits, with 10 points each.
Wisconsin grabbed the lead early, coming away with points on five of their first six possessions, and never trailed in the contest. But, Tuesday’s win didn’t come without some hiccups.
They entered the first media timeout up 10–4, but would go over six minutes without making a field goal. During that stretch, UW turned the ball over four times and allowed OSU to go on a 9–3 run to tie the game with 10:00 left in the half.
Eventually, the Badgers bounced back, dominating the closing five minutes of the half by going on a 14–2 run sparked by eight points from Klesmit, to earn a 34–21 halftime lead.
The lead would grow to as much as 17 early in the second half, but the Buckeyes refused to go down easy.
Ohio State caught fire coming out of a media timeout with 14:57 left, connecting on eight of their 10 field goal attempts in the following 6:30 of play, trimming the difference to six on a Thornton jump shot with 8:34 on the clock.
But, the Badgers shut down any hopes of a Buckeye comeback, tightening up on the defensive end and holding Ohio State scoreless for nearly seven minutes until Thornton ended the drought with a layup.
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During that seven-minute stretch, Wisconsin pushed the advantage back to double-digits and would ultimately lay claim to an eight-point victory.
Despite the four-game losing streak, the Badgers are in sole possession of third place in the Big 10, sitting a half-game behind Illinois and 2.5 games behind Purdue atop the conference.
Before meeting both the Fighting Illini and the Boilermakers in March, Wisconsin will close out the month of February with a road game against Iowa on Saturday, a home bout with Maryland on Feb. 20 and a road game against Indiana on Feb. 27.
