The Ohio State men’s basketball team (17-9, 9-6) walked into the gym Tuesday for a late-night battle with the 24th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers (18-8, 10-5) on the outside of the NCAA Tournament picture. As of Tuesday morning, the Buckeyes were listed as the second team out of the big dance, according to the Bracket Matrix, which compiles over 100 bracket models per day to create a consensus of NCAA Tournament standing.
The Buckeyes weren’t out of the picture Tuesday morning, but they are — and still are — in need of big wins to earn an at-large bid to the tournament for the first time since the 2021-22 season. Tuesday’s game creates an interesting paradox — the Buckeyes had not lost back-to-back games all season, and also had not beaten a ranked team all year. A game against the No. 24 team in the country three days after losing to Virginia meant one of those streaks was going to be broken.
It turns out, it was the latter.
Ohio State — Devin Royal in particular — came out and rattled Wisconsin’s cage early, knocking the Badgers square on their rear ends over the first seven minutes or so. Wisconsin jumped out to an early 6-4 lead, but Ohio State scored 18 of the next 22 points, pulling ahead 19-10 on a Bruce Thornton three-pointer, and then 22-10 on a Royal three-pointer 17 seconds later.
Despite getting the media timeout with 14:40 left in the half, Greg Gard was forced to call another one just over 60 seconds later when Royal’s second three-point make of the game put Ohio State up a dozen points, and the crowd started to really get into it. Royal scored 16 of Ohio State’s first 26, with Thornton assisting on five of Ohio State’s first 11 baskets.
However, after jumping out to a double-digit lead, the Buckeyes went cold, hitting 1 out of 10 shots and getting exactly one basket over a six-minute stretch. Wisconsin’s 8-2 run cut the Ohio State lead to 26-20 with just over six minutes left in the first half.
The Badgers only scored three more times over the final six minutes of the first half, with Ohio State pushing its lead back out to a dozen, 38-26 at the break. Royal. The junior outpaced his season average (13.6) in the first half alone with 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting.
A layup from Thornton, followed by Royal’s third three-point make of the game, gave Ohio State its largest lead of the game, 57-39, with 12:41 remaining in the game. Thornton’s layup gave him 13 on the night and 1,991 in his career, passing program legends Jerry Lucas and William Buford to move him into third all-time in program history.
The visiting Badgers made one last push late in the game, getting back within 12 points with just over six minutes in the game, but Thornton responded by scoring Ohio State’s next six points on a three-pointer and an and-one layup, pushing it back to 73-58 with 4:42 remaining.
The Buckeyes trailed for only 33 seconds in this game, cruising to a (mostly) painless, 86-69 win over No. 24 Wisconsin on Tuesday night. It’s Ohio State’s first win over a ranked team in 376 days.
Here are a few plays that felt crucial during Ohio State’s potential season-saving win:
Royal sees one go down
Junior forward Devin Royal was shooting close to 40% from three one month ago, but over his last eight games, he was 2-for-25 from three, dropping that season-long average to 29.5%.
But less than three minutes into Tuesday night’s game, Royal buried one from just in front of Wisconsin’s bench to put Ohio State up, 10-6. Less than four minutes later, he banged another one from straightaway to give the Buckeyes a 22-10 lead, waving his arms in the air to get the crowd going and forcing Greg Gard to use one of his timeouts to regroup.
Blackwell gets Wisconsin within six
After Ohio State briefly doubled up Wisconsin, the Badgers went on an 8-2 run over the next six minutes, with a Blackwell three-pointer cutting the Ohio State lead to 26-20 with 6:49 remaining in the first half. Blackwell was one of two guys — along with Nolan Winter — who were a consistent source of offense throughout the entire game.
Bynum, Chatman go back-to-back to double lead
After Winter slammed home a dunk with 4:37 left in the first half to cut it back to 30-24, Bynum and Chatman knocked down three-pointers on consecutive Ohio State possessions to double the lead from six to 12 points in under two minutes, 36-24. Bynum was 2-for-3 from three in the first half of Tuesday night’s game.
Thornton passes Lucas and Buford on the all-time scoring list
With his layup to make it 54-39 with just over 13 minutes remaining in the game, Thornton passed Ohio State legends William Buford and Jerry Lucas in the all-time scoring list, moving into third-place all-time. At the next media timeout, a pre-recorded video played on the big board with Lucas and Buford congratulating him on the accomplishment and wishing him luck for the rest of his career. Meanwhile, the crowd held up the number two and chanted “Bruuuuuuuce.”
Royal’s fourth three-pointer ties season-high
With the shot clock ticking down to five seconds, a very crowded Christoph Tilly passed out to Royal on the wing just a step or two in front of Jake Diebler, who knocked down his fourth three-pointer of the game to put Ohio State up, 67-51, with just over eight minutes remaining in the game. That tied his season-high in made three-pointers, as he also knocked down four of them against Pitt in November.
Bricken 4 Chicken!
Not only did Ohio State fans leave with a win, but they also left with a free chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A. Nick Boyd’s missed free throw with 2:18 remaining in the game made it seven total misses for the Badgers, which completed the Chick-fil-A “Bricken 4 Chicken” promotion in the arena. Boyd’s miss preserved what a 79-63 lead at the time, but fans went crazy for the free chicken coupon on top of Ohio State’s ninth conference win of the season.