With 3 minutes, 56 seconds remaining Thursday, Wisconsin led Ohio State, 66-63. The Buckeyes had the ball, and a basket out of the media timeout could have cut the deficit to one or tied the game up had Ohio State connected on a 3-pointer.
Buckeyes sophomore forward Jae'Sean Tate caught the ball on the wing, beautifully faked a dribble handoff and headed toward the basket for what appeared to be an easy layup. A Wisconsin defender rotated over, though, to slightly challenge Tate's shot — it was still quite makable — and altered it enough to cause him to miss it with his off-hand.
It was pretty much foreshadowing how the final minutes of this game played out.
Ohio State made just two of its last eight shots while Wisconsin made all three of its field-goal attempts and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line down the stretch. The Badgers outscored the Buckeyes 13-5 over that final 3:56 en route to the 79-68 victory.
It was the second-straight loss for Ohio State against a quality opponent, but it was also the second-straight time the Buckeyes were right there with a chance to win the game but failed to execute in crunch time.
The loss dropped Ohio State to 14-10 overall on the season and 6-5 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes will next be in action Tuesday when they host Northwestern at Value City Arena.
In addition to the obvious crunch-time failure, here are four more observations we made from Ohio State's loss at Wisconsin on Thursday night.
Starting Slow
Thursday was the latest chapter in what has been somewhat of a recurring theme for Ohio State this season in road games: slow starts. Wisconsin scored the first 11 points of the game and after Vitto Brown hit a 3-pointer Thad Matta called timeout to make a trio of substitutions hoping to spark his team.
The Buckeyes responded from there, and the game was close throughout from that point forward — Wisconsin led by 12 at one point in the second half, but Ohio State quickly erased that with a 9-0 run — but when you look at the final score and see an 11-point margin, it's frustrating if you're a Buckeyes fan to know Ohio State essentially started this game in an 11-0 hole.
Multiple Defensive Lapses
For the most part, Ohio State has been a solid defensive team for the majority of the season, even with a few hiccups along the way. The Buckeyes rank 17th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency.
But for whatever reason, against Wisconsin, Ohio State looked lost at times in its defensive rotations, consistently leaving shooters wide open. The Badgers connected on a season-high 13 3-pointers — their previous best this year was only eight —but the overwhelming majority of those were wide open looks. The Buckeyes either helped off when they shouldn't leaving to an easy kick-out opportunity; went under screens when they should have clearly chased over the top; or just failed to recover in pick-and-pop situations.
Wisconsin entered the game making an average of just 5.5 3-pointers and shooting just 33 percent from behind the arc as a team. The Badgers made 13 of 27 on Thursday night (48 percent).
Lyle Has Huge Night
The obvious bright spot for Ohio State on Thursday was the play of freshman point guard JaQuan Lyle, who had been in a major funk since being relegated to the bench before the Penn State game.
Lyle was the best player on the floor Thursday, pouring in a game-high 27 points on 11-of-19 shooting. He also had four assists and made 3-of-6 attempts from behind the 3-point line.
Lyle is the lone Ohio State player who can break anybody down off the dribble in the halfcourt offense and he showed that Thursday night. He's at his best when he's attacking the basket and either creating shots for himself or his teammates. He hadn't been doing that in recent weeks and consistency remains his biggest problem, but if he can ever get that part figured out, he's going to turn into a great player.
