Buckeyes, ranked first in the nation, were the lone undefeated Division I team. They surrendered a 47-32 lead. Watch video
DOUG LESMERISES
Plain Dealer Reporter
MADISON, Wis. - Ohio State's undefeated season ended at Wisconsin Saturday, as the Badgers wiped out a 15-point second-half lead by Ohio State to win 71-67.
The No. 1 Buckeyes fell to 24-1 and 11-1 in the Big Ten, while No. 13 Wisconsin is now 19-5 and 9-3 in the conference. The first-place Buckeyes still have a two-game lead on Wisconsin and a two-and-a-half game lead on Purdue.
Ohio State's Jared Sullinger (0) tries to shoot over Wisconsin's Jon Leuer."The goal of this basketball team when we set out was not to go undefeated," OSU coach Thad Matta said after the loss. "We'll see the character when we get back into practice tomorrow."
It was the first loss of their college careers for OSU freshmen Jared Sullinger and Aaron Craft, and while Sullinger said on one hand the loss wasn't all that bad, he later said how much he disliked the new college experience.
"We know the feeling of defeat and we don't want to feel that feeling again," Sullinger said, "that kind of sickness to my stomach. I don't like losing. I classify myself as a winner in everything I do. With us taking a tough loss, that hit me in the stomach pretty hard."
The Badgers stormed back with their 3-point shooting, making 7 of 13 long-range shots in the second half and 12 of 24 in the game, led by a 27-point performance from guard Jordan Taylor. He scored eight straight points to fuel that run after Ohio State went ahead 47-32 with 13:21 to play. Less than four minutes later, the game was tied at 47.
"He's a great player, but I've never seen him make threes like that, back to back to back," OSU senior David Lighty said. "Everybody started hitting threes."
The knockout punch for the Badgers came on a a 3-pointer by Mike Bruesewitz with 29 seconds to play that pushed the lead to five points when a miss would have given the Buckeyes the chance to tie the game or take the lead. Bruesewitz was a 32 percent 3-point shooter coming into the game, but was 2 for 2 Saturday.
"That was the guy we were saying, of the five, let him be the guy that beats us today, and he did that, he hit the two," Matta said.
Overall, Matta said he didn't know what else the Buckeyes could have done to slow down the Badgers' shooting.
"You have some (players with) size shooting them, I don't know exactly what we would have done a whole lot different," Matta said. "We tried everything we have, switching rotations, switching matchups, taking guys out of their help positions and rotating them, and they were going in."
William Buford, who helped extend the Ohio State lead to 15 with some hot shooting, let the way with 21 points for the Buckeyes, while Sullinger had 19 points and 12 rebounds. Sullinger was 7 of 12 from the field, but didn't take a shot for the first seven minutes of the game and also was kept from getting the ball down the stretch by the Wisconsin defense. Sullinger said the Badgers fronted him with a big player and then had a second defender help behind him, something he hadn't seen before this season.
"They made it difficult for me to get the ball," Sullinger said. "It was a great gameplan by Wisconsin. It was really tough for me to catch the ball."
"It's hard to score if you don't have the ball. That's what we were trying to do with him," Wisconsin's Jon Leuer said of the Badgers' defense on Sullinger. "We were trying to limit his touches because when he gets it down there, he's pretty much unstoppable."
For more than three months this season, the Buckeyes were unstoppable, but they couldn't break their streak in Madison, Matta falling to 0-6 at the Kohl Center as the coach of the Buckeyes. And then the Wisconsin students stormed the court around them.
"Oh man, it was very hard to watch. I don't like it at all," Lighty said. "We wanted to stay undefeated and stay No. 1, of course. But things happen. All you can do is learn from it. Just like life, it continues to go on. You can't sit here and be sad about it. It's only one loss. We've still got the best record in the country, so there's no reason to hang our heads at all."
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/ohio-sports-blog/index.ssf/2011/02/ohio_state_loses_for_first_tim.html
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