Saturday morning provided Wisconsin with their first taste of the 2021-22 Big Ten road gauntlet. In a conference that just saw No. 1 Purdue go down at Rutgers and Ohio State defeat then-No. 1 Duke at home, road wins will be few and far between.
Wisconsin (8-2, 1-1 BIG) was unable to pass their first Big Ten road test, falling 73-55 after a cold-shooting second half at Ohio State (8-2, 2-0 BIG). The Badgers had their six-game winning streak snapped and were handed their first conference loss of the year.
Led by senior Brad Davison, the Badgers got off to a scorching start. A Davison jumper gave Wisconsin a 19-11 lead just over 9 minutes into the contest. The rest of the first half, and the day, belonged to early National Player of the Year candidate E.J. Liddell and the Buckeyes. Ohio State closed the first half on a 23-10 run to flip the script.
The Badgers would go on to shoot just 29% in the second half, as nobody but Johnny Davis could provide any form of offense. Davis finished with 24 points on 11-22 from the field, while the rest of Wisconsin’s team combined to make 11 field goals. As a team, Wisconsin went just 6-26 (23%) from three-point range.
Liddell would finish with a game-high 28 points, on an efficient 11-16 from the field. Wisconsin sent Tyler Wahl, Steven Crowl, and even Ben Carlson at times to Liddell but nobody was able to stop Ohio State’s best player.
Wisconsin now heads back to non-conference action, with a trio of home games against mid-major opponents.