MADISON, Wis. – Load management is not an option at the University of Wisconsin, especially with the Badgers amid their longest losing slide in six years.
Riding its veteran starting lineup, seeing the five starters average 34-plus minutes on the court, No.20 Wisconsin registered an old-school Big Ten victory with a 62-54 victory over Ohio State Tuesday at the Kohl Center.
“It’s February, and we got to do what we got to do,” head coach Greg Gard said. “I ride who is playing well … Games we have to go full throttle.”
For the first time in several weeks, it was UW’s core group that delivered in every category: scoring, rebounding, facilitating, and defending to halt the Badgers (17-8, 9-5 Big Ten) and their freefall down the conference standings.
Advertisement
Here are my takeaways from Wisconsin’s first victory since January 26.
Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton (2) tries to turn the corner on Wisconsin guard Chucky Hepburn (23) (Mark Hoffman/USA TODAY Sports)
Crowl’s Assertiveness Was Evident
The first three possessions for Wisconsin were indictive of the night Steven Crowl was going to have. While the center opening the game with an open three-pointer was a nice boost, Crowl executing a driving layup was a sign of how he was going to play the Buckeyes: aggressively.
He wasn’t always successful, getting shots altered or swatted in the lane by 6-11 center Felix Okpara. Unlike his games against Purdue’s Zach Edey or Rutgers’ Clifford Omoruyi, Crowl kept attacking.
Crowl finished 7-for-14 and two assists, a low number considering how often Wisconsin got him and fellow forward Tyler Wahl (10 points, 7 rebounds) the ball in the post to either score or spark the offense.
“I thought he was more than effective in the post,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said of Crowl. “You give him credit.”
Advertisement
Considering Wisconsin’s head coach demanded that action, it’s not surprising to see a renewed focus on low-post touches with UW finishing +13 on the glass (39-26) and +10 (17-7) in second-chance points.
“It was not a suggestion,” Gard said. “It was a mandate … He’s too good for us to not find every which way possible to touch him in (the post).
Hepburn and Klesmit Shine With Defense
Starting backcourt Chucky Hepburn and Max Klesmit combined to shoot just 5-for-15 from the floor, but their impact carried as much weight as UW’s starting frontcourt.
Undervalued as a defender, Hepburn matched up with sophomore guard Bruce Thornton and made the sophomore work from start to finish. Thornton finished with a game-high 18 points, but it took him 19 shots to reach that number. At halftime, Thornton made more turnovers (two) than field goals (one) on seven shots.
“In the Big Ten, most of the opponent’s teams start with the point guard, so that’s my main goal is to take the point guard out of the game because it disrupts the rhythm of the opponent,” Hepburn said. “My game will come throughout the game. I’m going to find it, but my main goal is to make sure we run the offense right and to defend the best that I can.”
Advertisement
Hepburn’s offense did come with nine points on 3 of 5 shooting, including two three-pointers that were delivered in rhythm with good rotation off his hand. His first three came at a pivotal moment after Ohio State had cut a 17-point lead down to five.
Hepburn finished with seven assists, five rebounds, two steals, and no turnovers in 39 minutes, pushing his assist-to-turnover margin to 3.17 (second-best in the Big Ten).
“Just get the ball to Chucky, he’ll make the right play as you saw multiple times,” Crowl said.
After Jamison Battle took Wisconsin to task in Columbus (7-for-11, 18 pts), Klesmit delivered in his second shot at the senior. Averaging 14.1 points per game, Battle hit his lone shot with 16 seconds left and the game decided, leaving him with a season-low three points on 1 of 6 shooting.
“Max has taken that ownership of that chase guy really to heart,” Gard said, “and takes a lot of pride in it of really making it hard of the other team’s better shooters to even get looks off, let alone good ones.”
Advertisement
First-Half Surge A Critical Factor
A sleepy first half was ignited during consecutive possessions late in the first half, courtesy of Klesmit and A.J. Storr.
Crowl was emphatically denied on a post shot by Okpara’s block, but Hepburn grabbed the offensive rebound and fed the ball to Klesmit, who buried the three-pointer in front of Ohio State’s bench.
On the next trip down the court, Hepburn forced a turnover against Thornton, running a two-man break with Storr. It wasn’t an alley-oop pass leading to a thunderous dunk, but Hepburn’s pass to Storr led to a two-handed slam.
Holtmann called timeout to try and stall the 7-1 run and the building momentum, but the Badgers continued pouring on the offense from the paint and the perimeter.
With the Buckeyes cold (missing nine of their last 10), UW’s 16-3 run over the final 5:30 gave the Badgers a comfortable lead at the break.
Advertisement
UW started 6-for-16 from the field but made 5 of its final 8 shots.
By The Numbers
11 – Wisconsin picked up its 11th Quad 1/Quad 2 win of the season, joining only No.2 Purdue (11) and No.1 Connecticut (13) with at least 11 such victories
54 – Ohio State’s 54 points were the fewest Wisconsin has allowed to a Big Ten opponent this season and the fewest the Buckeyes have scored on the Badgers since a 72-48 UW win on March 8, 2015.
2 – The Buckeyes went 1-for-2 against the line against UW, a season-ow for a Badgers opponent in both categories.
52 – With two steals Tuesday, Hepburn upped his total to 52 for the season and ranks second in the Big Ten with 2.2 steals per game.
Advertisement
151 – Wahl appeared in his 151st game, passing Nigel Hayes for second on UW’s career list. He trails only Brad Davison (161), who Wahl tied for fifth place on UW’s win list.
_________________________________________________
*Chat about this article in The Badgers’ Den
*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel
*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)
CINCINNATI (WKRC) — Sixty percent of children in Ohio are not ready for kindergarten when they start school.
Now, a national nonprofit is working to change that by expanding access to books and promoting early literacy across the state.
Sixty percent of children in Ohio are not ready for kindergarten when they start school. (WKRC file)
Nedra Smith has seen the difference firsthand. Her two young daughters receive books through the program at their pediatrician visits at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Advertisement
“They love to read now,” Smith said. “We’ll randomly be out and they’ll see a book and want to read a book.”
Reach Out and Read partners with pediatricians to give children books during regular checkups and encourage parents to read aloud with them. The program has been part of Cincinnati Children’s for more than a decade.
“They typically come in and tell us they got new books,” Smith said. “They typically ask me to read the book right then and there.”
Program leaders say early literacy is increasingly being recognized as an important part of a child’s overall health and development.
“Initially, literacy may not have been in the forefront or seen as a health benefit,” said Kristy High, program manager for Reach Out and Read. “Well-child checks focus on shots, nutrition, and those things; but now we want to focus on those main benefits for the development and milestones when it comes to learning.”
Advertisement
The organization is now working to expand its reach statewide, with a goal of serving children in all 88 Ohio counties.
“We know that those first five years of life are the most critical for brain development,” said Steven Lake, executive director of Reach Out and Read Ohio. “If we can intervene as early as possible, essentially, we reach out at birth; we know we can have the greatest impact.”
Smith encourages other parents to participate in the program and read to their children.
“It’s fun,” Smith said. “It’s actually fun to see them light up, and I think they’ll pass that on to their own kids as well.”
Reach Out and Read also partners with providers in Kentucky and Indiana. You can find a participating provider near you on the organization’s website.
Advertisement
If you are a doctor looking to participate in the program, click here.
The Ohio Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 10, 2026, results for each game:
Pick 3
Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m., except Saturday evening.
Midday: 8-6-2
Advertisement
Evening: 7-0-5
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Pick 4
Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m., except Saturday evening.
Midday: 9-4-7-0
Evening: 0-6-1-8
Advertisement
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Pick 5
Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m., except Saturday evening.
Midday: 1-7-3-7-4
Evening: 9-0-8-8-0
Check Pick 5 payouts and previous drawings here.
Advertisement
Rolling Cash 5
Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at approximately 7:05 p.m.
16-19-33-36-38
Check Rolling Cash 5 payouts and previous drawings here.
Millionaire for Life
Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at approximately 11:15 p.m.
01-03-20-35-46, Bonus: 05
Advertisement
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by an Enquirer digital news director. You can send feedback using this form.
Ryan Day will have some very familiar competition in the Big 10 soon.
The son of the Ohio State football coach, R.J. Day, announced his commitment to Northwestern for the Class of 2027 on Sunday.
Northwestern plays in the same conference as Ohio State and the schools will face each other.
R.J. Day, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound quarterback from — not surprisingly — Columbus, Ohio, has started for three years at St. Francis DeSales HS as he heads towards his senior season.
Advertisement
Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day enters Ohio Stadium before the Ohio State Spring Football Game on April 18, 2026 in Columbus, Ohio. Getty Images
According to reports, the younger Day had other offers from Purdue, Syracuse, Cincinnati and South Florida, as well as others.
Northwestern has eight quarterbacks on head coach David Braun’s roster.
And the offensive coordinator for the Wildcats is Chip Kelly, who served in the same role for Ryan Day at Ohio State when the Buckeyes won the title in 2024.
Kelly, the former head coach at UCLA and Oregon, was also the offensive coordinator at New Hampshire when Ryan Day was the team captain from 1998-2001.
Most recently, Kelly was the OC with the Las Vegas Raiders before he took the job with Northwestern.
Advertisement
“It’s really surreal when you think about the relationships that we’ve had with those two as a family over the years,” R.J. Day told ESPN earlier this month. “Coach Kelly coached my dad in college, so that adds another layer to it.”
