Men's Basketball
Badgers Keep Title Hopes Alive with Win Over Buckeyes
By John Porentas
David Copperfield would have been proud of the appearing and disappearing acts that took place in the basketball game between the Buckeyes and the Badgers.
Buckeye center Terence Dials made a grand appearance early in the game, only to disappear when the game was on the line in the second half. The Ohio State three point shooting that has been so apparent lately made a grand disappearance, and OSU defensive stopper J. J. Sullinger made a nice cameo early, but disappeared late in the game with foul trouble. But the biggest appearance of all was that of Wisconsin forward Alando Tucker, who didn't just show up, but took center stage, scoring a game-high 27 points and making a key blocked shot when the game was on the line. It all added up to a 78-73 win for Wisconsin (18-7, 8-4 Big Ten) over No. 12 Ohio State (18-4, 7-4 Big Ten) in Madison, a win that kept alive Wisconsin's Big Ten title hopes and set back some those of the Buckeyes.
Dials carried the Buckeyes early, racking up 12 points in the first half as the Buckeyes led by as many as 13 in the first 20 minutes. The Badgers had seen the effect of OSU's devastating three point shooting in recent games and elected to extend their defense to try to stop OSU's shooting from beyond the arc. That left Dials open, and early on, he was able to capitalize.
"I think they decided to let Terence get his and try to defend the perimeter and not let the threes get falling. They did a great job of it," OSU point guard Jamar Butler.
The defensive strategy was effective. OSU was able to connect on just four of 17 three point attempts (23.5 per cent), far below their season average of 42.8 per cent from beyond the arc.
Dials continued to capitalize on the Badger defensive strategy, and the Buckeyes continued to lead, until the 12:35 mark of the second half That's when he did his disappearing thing. Dials did not score over the last 12:35. Coincidentally, OSU also saw a five point lead disappear over that same time frame and eventually turn into the final margin of defeat.
"They tried to take away the three and gave me whatever inside," said Dials.
"I kind of got them early, but later on in the game I kind of didn't take advantage of my opportunities that I was given. It was a like tale of two halves. The first half we played real well, the second half they played excellent."
Dials simply could not connect down the stretch, and with OSU's outside shooting nullified, they simply had no options left on offense.
"To their credit, they stepped the defense up a little bit. The shots that I was getting early on weren't as easy in the second half," Dials said.
"They were sagging a little bit (late in the game). That's the defense they've always played, a sagging defense but tonight it was a different night because of the way we shoot the three they pretty much didn't have opportunities to sag until later on in the game where I was scoring pretty much whenever I touch it. Tucker actually blocked one of my shots, I didn't know he as there. They just played well," Dials said.
While Dials was disappearing, Tucker was dominating, particularly when OSU defensive ace J. J. Sullinger went out of the game with foul trouble. With Sullinger on the bench. OSU had no answer defensively for Tucker who scored at will in the paint and on drives.
"I think it was a major impact," said Matta of Sullinger's foul problems that had him on the bench.
"James had done a pretty good job in the first half. I think he he only had a bucket on him. The other four he had were on some other guys," Matta said.
Sullinger's absence defensively led directly to OSU's demise. With Sullinger out of the game OSU had no defensive matchup answer for Tucker. That meant that Dials and other Buckeyes had to help out on him, and that in turn left open other Badgers who stepped up to make big baskets down the stretch.
"Tucker is such a man down low," said Dials.
"He's such a difficult matchup because he's so athletic and strong. He uses his body real well. You have to pay a lot of attention to him and I think I got caught up paying too much attention rather than paying attention to my own man. I lost Butch a few times and he made me pay when he hit some threes," Dials said.
Ohio State finally slowed down Tucker over the last minutes of the game, but they paid a price.
Ohio State was clinging to a two point lead at 64-62 with 4:38 remaining with some unexpected heroes stepped up.
Ray Nixon hit a jumper to tie the game at 64, and following a Wisconsin stop at the other end, Tucker hit two free throws to give Wisconsin its first lead in the second half. Jamar Butler tied the game with a jumper, but with the OSU defense still keying on Tucker, Nixon again was left open and this time he buried a three to put Wisconsin back up 69-66 with 2:25 remaining. It was a lead the Badgers would not relinquish.
Butler hit two free throws to cut the lead to one, but this time is was Brian Butch who benefited from OSU's attention to Tucker. Butch hit a three that put his team up by four with 1:48 remaining.
"We were basically focused on Taylor and Tucker because they came out firing in the second half and they got going, so we were trying to stop them and concentrated on them too much and left Nixon open," said Butler "He stepped up and made those shots."
The Badgers managed to hold on to their lead and extend it to as many as eight points as the Buckeyes began fouling in the latter stages of the game to stop the clock. The Badgers hit six of nine free throw attempts over the last 1:11 while the Buckeyes continued to misfire from three point range. OSU was one-for-five from three point range over that period. Jamar Butler's trey with just seven seconds remaining cut Wisconsin's 78-70 lead to the final score of 78-73.
With the win the Badgers move into second place in the Big Ten standings with a half-game lead over both Ohio State and Illinois. Wisconsin now stands at 8-4 in league play, while both the Illini and Buckeyes have played one less game and have matching 7-4 records. League-leading Iowa is at 9-3 in the conference.
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