There was a “Big Three” on the court today in Columbus, but it wasn’t the group most expected as the trio of Jordan Taylor, Jared Berggren, and Ryan Evans led 15th ranked Wisconsin to a 63-60 victory over 7th ranked Ohio State.
Taylor led all Badgers (21-8, 10-6 conf.) in scoring with 19 points to go with 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Berggren wasn’t far behind adding 18 points and 5 rebounds while Ryan Evans managed a double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in the winning effort.
With the victory Wisconsin ended a streak of losing on the road to Top 10 Big Ten opponents that dated back to Jan 26, 1980, ironically also against Ohio State. They also ended a two game road losing streak in gritty fashion.
In the losing effort Ohio State (23-6, 11-5 conf.) got a huge game from Deshaun Thomas who led all scorers with 23 points and 7 rebounds. Joining Thomas in double figures were William Buford at 15 points and point guard Aaron Craft with 13 points (6-10FG’s).
This win was all about effort, effort by the entire Badgers team on both ends of the court as they forced 12 Buckeye turnovers and held Jared Sullinger to just 8 points on 4 of 10 shooting from the floor. On the offensive end the Badgers grabbed 8 offensive rebounds, 4 of which came from Evans.
Wisconsin found itself clawing to gain a meaningful lead for most of the game and never had a lead greater than 4 points for itself. In fact both teams found it though to pull away in the first half. The lead changed 9 times and there were 5 ties in the half as the Badgers and Buckeyes went into halftime tied 29-29.
Thanks to the defensive effort (forcing 7 turnovers) Wisconsin was able to stay in the game despite getting crushed in shooting for the half (39.3% to 54.5% by OSU). Deshaun Thomas had 9 of the Buckeyes first 11 points on the way to a 13 point half.
Overall the Badgers and Buckeyes kept this game close from the start as the lead changed 19 times and the biggest lead of the game was only 8 points by Ohio State, who reached that lead at 50-42 with 8:13 left in the game. However a quick 8-1 run by the Badgers brought them to within 1 point at 51-50 on a layup by Josh Gasser with 4:37 left to play. Wisconsin would retake a lead at 52-51 just under a minute later and the lead began to swing back and forth from there.
However, no lead change was more important than a 3 pointer by Jared Berggren with just 31 seconds left that put the Badgers up 61-59. The star of the game for OSU couldn’t come through as Thomas took an ill-advised three pointer with 25 seconds left that had no prayer of going in and Wisconsin hit a pair of free throws on the other end to extend the game to 63-59.
Evans inadvertantly came through for the Badgers on the final possession as he committed a blocking foul on a layup attempt by Aaron Craft with just under a second left and with a 4 point lead there wasn’t much of a chance of a comeback. Craft made the first free throw and did what he needed to by missing the 2nd, but the ball was tapped to Wisconsin to seal a massive victory for the Badgers.
Wisconsin ends it’s road slate in the Big Ten sporting an impressive 7-3 record in those games and will now close out the season with home games against Minnesota and Illinois. Up next is the final border battle of the season as the Badgers take on Minnesota at 7pm Central on the Big Ten Network.
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