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.

Here are my takeaways from Wisconsin’s first victory since January 26.

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.”

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).

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.”

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.”

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.

UW started 6-for-16 from the field but made 5 of its final 8 shots.

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.

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)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook