Ohio

Ohio State Earns Season’s First Ranked Win Over No. 24 Wisconsin, 86-69

Published

1 week ago

February 17, 2026

Ohio State Earns Season’s First Ranked Win Over No. 24 Wisconsin, 86-69

Ohio State answered one of its most brutal heartbreaks with its best performance of the season on Tuesday.

With NCAA Tournament hopes hanging in the balance, Devin Royal carried the Buckeyes through the first half before Bruce Thornton finished the job in the second. Amare Bynum and Taison Chatman had their say, too.

TEAM	1	2	FINAL
#24 WISCONSIN	26	43	69
OHIO STATE	38	48	86

A complete showing from the squad earned Ohio State (17-9, 9-6 Big Ten) its first ranked win of the season over No. 24 Wisconsin (18-8, 10-5), 86-69, after an offensive collapse cost the Buckeyes a win against No. 15 Virginia on Saturday.

The win also avenged an earlier road loss to the Badgers for the Buckeyes.

Bruce Thornton started slow but starred again, scoring 27 points with 24 of them coming in the second half. He nearly reached a triple-double, with nine rebounds and eight assists. Devin Royal racked up a season-high 25 points, 16 in the first half, on a 10-of-17 shooting night. Bynum tacked on 13 points and Chatman scored 11.

Guard Braeden Carrington led the way in the loss for Wisconsin, scoring 19 points and shooting 5-of-12 from three.

First Half

WISCONSIN	STAT	OHIO STATE
69	POINTS	86
27-59 (45.8%)	FGM-FGA (PCT.)	31-57 (54.4%)
7-26 (26.9%)	3PM-3PA (PCT.)	11-21 (52.4%)
8-16 (50%)	FTM-FTA (PCT.)	13-19 (68.4%)
12	TURNOVERS	14
27	TOTAL REBOUNDS	35
10	OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS	11
17	DEFENSIVE REBOUNDS	24
28	BENCH POINTS	8
5	BLOCKS	2
4	STEALS	3
13	ASSISTS	16

Royal struggled when Thornton needed aid in Ohio State’s previous loss to No. 15 Virginia, shooting 2-of-12 from the field for just four points. Against the Badgers, his hot start fueled a hot start for the team.

He hit a turnaround jumper over a strong contest, drained a 3-pointer and cashed in an open layup on his first three shots for a quick burst of seven points in the first four minutes. Bynum tacked on a 3-pointer and Ohio State held a 12-6 lead at the outset.

Royal didn’t stop. He carved out space for a layup and collected his first assist of the contest on a Thornton 3-pointer. Then Royal hit his second triple of the night to make it 12 points in the first 6:30 of game action, handing Ohio State a 22-10 advantage that it worked to maintain the rest of the first half.

The first bit of that maintenance work was also done by Royal. Two more fancy post moves granted him two more clean layups. Star guard John Blackwell sank a corner 3-pointer to bring Wisconsin back within six points, but then picked up his second foul on defense and had to sit. Bynum hit a sky-high floater in response.

Up 30-24, the Buckeyes launched an 8-0 run in the final minutes of the first half. Bynum led the charge, flying out of nowhere to swat a shot from Wisconsin guard Braden Carrington and splashing home his second 3-pointer in three attempts. Chatman hit a triple and Puff Johnson a circus floater as the Schottenstein Center erupted. The standing ovation rang in a 14-point lead for Ohio State.

Wisconsin center Nolan Winter hit a layup under the to cut the lead to 38-26 at halftime. Smothering defense aided Ohio State in gaining its separation: The Buckeyes had nine points off turnovers and held Wisconsin to 1-of-8 from 3-point range in the first half.

Second Half

A Chatman drive and finish, combined with a Thornton 3-pointer, stretched Ohio State’s lead to its largest yet at 15 points. Thornton kept coming alive after he scored just three points in the first half.

He put together a nice series of dribble moves and finished strong at the rim, then got downhill to draw a foul. Royal added a mid-range jumper in the eye of his defender in between as the Buckeyes’ advantage grew to 16. Carrington kept splashing impossible-looking 3-pointers, but the Badgers still weren’t clawing back into the game.

Thornton converted a layup through a foul and Royal hit a 3-pointer for a quick 6-0 run that gave Ohio State’s lead its largest yet at 57-39. Bynum strung together five points before Wisconsin strung a couple of baskets together and cut its deficit back to 13 – only for Royal to can another 3-pointer and stop the momentum.

The Badgers got a layup from star guard Nick Boyd and a tip-in from forward Hayden Jones, which sliced it back to a 12-point game, but Thornton drained another triple before an and-one layup from the Buckeyes’ brightest star made it a 17-point lead once more.

Four more points from Thornton made it a 20-point advantage at 83-63 with 1:37 to play. Coach Jake Diebler took him out with one minute remaining, allowing the crowd to welcome him with a standing ovation. Ohio State dribbled out the win from there.

What’s Next?

After finally getting a layoff longer than two days, Ohio State hits the road to East Lansing for a clash with No. 15 Michigan State on Sunday. Tipoff is at 1 p.m. on CBS.

Game Notes

Ohio State improves to 92-78 all-time against Wisconsin.
Royal’s 12 points in the first 6:30 were already triple what he scored against Virginia.
Thornton passed Jerry Lucas and William Buford’s mark of 1,990 points to go into third all-time in career points for the Buckeyes. Ohio State played a video tribute featuring both Lucas and Buford at the break after it happened. He is now 92 points from passing Dennis Hopson for the most in Buckeye history, surpassing 2,000 for his career.
Ohio State was 0-6 against ranked teams this season before beating the Badgers.

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Ohio

Ohio woman sentenced in $775,000 Medicaid scheme

Published

2 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

COLUMBUS — A Lake County woman was sentenced this morning to jail time and ordered to pay $775,000 in restitution for fraudulently billing Medicaid, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced. “She inflated her earnings through brazen fraud, but her scheme burst wide open when our investigators got the case,” Yost said. “Cheating taxpayers comes with […]

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Ohio

‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

Published

14 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

A wind-swept blaze at an Ohio hog farm complex caused “catastrophic” damage and left thousands of pigs dead, fire officials said, marking another devastating barn inferno contributing to the deaths of millions of animals in recent years.

The massive fire occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at Fine Oak Farms in Union Township, Madison County, located west of Ohio’s capital of Columbus, according to the Central Townships Joint Fire District. Fire crews received a report of a barn fire shortly before 12 p.m. local time.

The incident was later upgraded to a commercial structure fire after Chief Brian Bennington observed a “large column of smoke visible from a distance” and requested additional resources. Multiple local fire departments, along with several other emergency agencies, were called to the scene.

“What our crews encountered upon arrival was a very difficult and heartbreaking incident,” Bennington said in a statement on Feb. 26.

The fire chief described the facility as a large farm complex used for hog production consisting of five large agricultural buildings, including four that housed about 7,500 hogs. When crews arrived at the scene, they found two of the barns engulfed in flames, Bennington said.

Crews were challenged by windy conditions that significantly impacted fire suppression efforts, according to Bennington. Three barns were destroyed in the fire, and about 6,000 hogs and pigs were killed.

Firefighters saved one barn and about 1,500 hogs, the fire chief added. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Bennington highlighted the assistance of the farming community throughout Madison and Clark counties, as multiple farmers responded with water trucks to help with water supply efforts. “Rural Ohio’s agricultural community is tight-knit, and they truly step up when one of their own is in need,” he said.

The incident remains under investigation, and the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office will determine the fire’s cause and origin. Bennington said there is no suspicion of arson and no ongoing threat to the public at this time.

‘Rapidly changing fire behavior conditions’

Heavy smoke from the fire could be seen for miles, and Bennington said first-arriving units were met with fire conditions coming from the opposite side of the hog farm complex.

The fire chief noted that the incident required extensive water-shuttle operations due to rural water-supply limitations in the area. Crews attempted to cut the fire off by deploying multiple handlines and using an aerial device, but “faced extremely challenging conditions throughout the incident,” according to Bennington.

Sustained winds of about 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph accelerated the fire’s spread, Bennington said. The high winds made it “extremely difficult” to contain forward fire progression and created “rapidly changing fire behavior conditions” across the agricultural complex, he added.

After about four to five hours, the fire was contained by fire personnel from four different counties, according to the fire chief.

“Unfortunately, the fire resulted in catastrophic damage to the business,” Bennington said in an earlier statement on Feb. 25. “A significant portion of the agricultural structures were destroyed.”

Latest major fire to impact an Ohio hog farm

The incident at Fine Oak Farms is the latest major fire to cause significant damage to an Ohio hog farm in recent years.

In August 2024, about 1,100 pigs were killed in Versailles, a village about 50 miles northwest of Dayton, Ohio, according to data from the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute. In March 2022, about 2,000 hogs died in a barn fire at Kenneth Scholl Hog Farm in Brown Township, just west of Columbus.

Before the fire at Fine Oak Farms, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that other barn fires in Ohio this year killed 162 sheep, horses, cows, chickens, and other animals.

Hundreds of thousands of animals killed in barn fires each year

Data from the Animal Welfare Institute shows that hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in barn fires across the country each year. Since 2013, over 9 million farm animals have been killed in barn fires, according to the organization.

As of Feb. 26, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that 118,738 farm animals have died in U.S. barn fires this year, including the incident at Fine Oak Farms. The majority of farm animals killed were chickens in separate incidents in North Carolina and Georgia in January, and another incident in Missouri earlier this month.

“Most fatal barn fires occurred in colder states, particularly the Upper Midwest and the Northeast. New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois had the highest number of barn fires, respectively,” according to the organization. “The amount of cold weather a state experienced appeared to be a greater factor in the prevalence of barn fires than the intensity of a state’s animal agriculture production.”

In an updated report on farm animal deaths due to barn fires in 2025, the Animal Welfare Institute said more than 2.53 million farm animals were killed in barn fires from 2022 to 2024. The organization noted that the high death toll was “driven primarily” by fires at large operations that housed several thousand to over 1 million farm animals.

The majority of deaths in these incidents during that period, over 98%, were farmed birds, such as chickens and turkeys, according to the Animal Welfare Institute. But in 2023, a massive fire at a west Texas dairy farm became the single deadliest event involving livestock in the state’s history and the deadliest cattle fire in America in at least a decade.

18,000 head of cattle perished in the fire at the South Fork Dairy farm near Dimmitt, Texas. At the time, Roger Malone, who is the former mayor of Dimmitt, called the incident “mind-boggling.”

“I don’t think it’s ever happened before around here. It’s a real tragedy,” Malone said.

Contributing: Rick Jervis, USA TODAY; Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch

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Ohio’s LaRose pushes back on voter fraud critics, Democrats

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Ohio’s LaRose pushes back on voter fraud critics, Democrats

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose discussed voter fraud and Ohio’s efforts to prevent it during a recent radio appearance.

LaRose appeared on “The Bill Cunningham” radio show, where he defended the state’s efforts to minimize voter fraud. A clip posted on X shows audio of LaRose arguing that policies aimed at preventing voter fraud are necessary even though cases are rare.

Here’s what to know.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose says voter fraud in Ohio is rare, compares prevention efforts to TSA security

In the clip, LaRose says that Democrats claim voter fraud is rare, and should be ignored.

“The left claims that voter fraud is rare, so we should just ignore it,” he said. “Well, airplane hijackings are also rare — we don’t abolish the TSA. The reason why we keep voter fraud rare in states like Ohio because we do these very things that they’re trying to take away from me.”

LaRose announced the inaugural meeting of the new Ohio Election Integrity Commission, which replaces what he called the flawed Ohio Elections Commission, in January 2026. The new committee, he says, will be used in “enforcing Ohio’s election laws, reviewing alleged violations, and ensuring accountability in matters relating to voting.”

In October 2025, LaRose said that he forwarded more than 1,000 cases of voter fraud to the U.S. Department of Justice. The cases involved 1,084 noncitizen individuals who appear to have registered to vote unlawfully in Ohio, and 167 noncitizens who appear to have also cast a ballot in a federal election since 2018.

In February 2026, President Donald Trump said Republicans should “nationalize” elections. He also accused Democrats of bringing migrants into the United States to illegally vote, a claim that is not backed by evidence, USA TODAY reports.

Voter fraud in the U.S. is considered rare nationwide, according to NPR, but there are still debates from both political sides on how frequently it occurs.

What is voter fraud?

Electoral fraud is defined as illegally interfering with the process of an election, according to Ballotpedia. This includes in-person voter fraud, absentee or mail ballots and illegal voter suppression.

Criminal penalties can include fines or imprisonment for up to five years, according to U.S. code. In Ohio, election interference can carry a felony of the fourth degree, according to Ohio Code.

Voter fraud is often a topic of debate among Democrats and Republicans, where organizations such as the conservative Heritage Foundation maintains a database claiming to show nearly 1,500 cases of election fraud since the year 2000.

Meanwhile, research by law professor Justin Leavitt published in 2014 found 31 cases of in-person voter fraud among billions of ballots cast from 2000–2014, according to Ballotpedia.

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