After starting strong and leading by as much as nine in the first half, Ohio State fell victim to some hot second-half shooting by Wisconsin and ultimately fell to the Badgers, 69-48, Sunday at the Kohl Center.
The loss drops Ohio State to 1-5 in the Big Ten and 11-8 overall while Wisconsin improves to 9-10 and 1-5 in league play.
With Ohio State up 29-25 at the half, Wisconsin opened the second half on a 21-4 run to take a 46-33 lead until a 3-pointer by Cait Craft at the 11:30 mark haulted the momentum and cut the lead to 10. OSU hit just two of its first 12 shots in the second half. UW then extended its lead to 14 with two straight baskets and Ohio State didn’t score another field goal until the 8:24 mark when a Tayler Hill 3-pointer cut the lead to 10 once again, 52-42.
But the Buckeyes second-half effort couldn’t slow down the Badgers as Wisconsin slowly pulled away down the stretch for the victory.
Tayler Hill led the Buckeyes with 16 points to move into eighth place on Ohio State’s career scoring list. Ashley Adams recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Raven Ferguson added seven while Craft and Darryce Moore both added six.
Wisconsin’s Morgan Paige led all scorers with 28 points and Jacki Gulczynski scored all 14 of her points in the second half. The Badgers shot 60 percent in the second half after shooting just 28 percent in the first.
Ohio State led by four at the half behind 10 first half points from Hill. The Buckeyes, who shot 50 percent in the first half and hit 4 3-pointers, led by as much as nine as the first 20 minutes.
But the Buckeyes cooled off offensively in the second half, shooting 20 percent from the field in the final period.
Ohio State will have a week off before returning home to face No. 8 Penn State at 1 p.m. Sunday at Value City Arena.
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