MADISON, Wis. — Ohio State coach Thad Matta watched Wisconsin’s loss to Purdue and wondered the chances the Badgers would shoot that way again.
Turns out not great.
The 18th-ranked Badgers bounced back from that poor performance four days earlier to blitz Ohio State 89-66 on Thursday night as they shot 49 percent from the field and a season-best 55 percent from the 3-point line.
“It’s proven we’re like a get-well card for teams shooting the basketball,” Matta said. Everyone shot 41 percent or better in the four-game losing streak to open Big Ten play.
Perhaps no Badger embodied that bounce back better than Bronson Koenig. The team’s leading scorer at 14 points a game, he was 3 of 8 against the Boilermakers and 1 of 4 from the 3-point line. Things did not start well as he missed his first three shots, but then he caught fire. He hit 7 of his final 9 attempts and finished with 21 points in just 27 minutes on the court.
“I tried not to fall into that trap of deferring, and that’s what I did,” Koenig said of his early struggles. “I stayed on the attack and stayed aggressive.”
As a team, Wisconsin (14-3, 3-1 Big Ten) shot 39 percent from the field on Sunday, including just 2 of 14 from 3-point range, as Purdue snapped the Badgers’ nine-game winning streak. Wisconsin had no such troubles with the Buckeyes (10-7, 0-4), especially because the Badgers seemed to rebound everything they missed.
Playing its third straight game without Keita Bates-Diop, who’s out for the season with a stress fracture in his leg, Ohio State allowed Wisconsin to turn 21 offensive rebounds into 28 second-chance points.
Overall, Wisconsin outrebounded the Buckeyes 44-31, and Matta said his team “just didn’t have it” on the boards, expressing disappointment in his team’s fight after the Badgers started to pull away in the first half.
JaQuan Lyle led the Buckeyes with 13 points.
“We just caved in,” Matta said.
Cincinnati 66,
SMU 64
CINCINNATI — Troy Caupain scored 16 points and blunted SMU’s comeback, and No. 22 Cincinnati let most of a 15-point lead slip away before holding on for a victory.
The Bearcats (14-2, 4-0) won a matchup of the last two unbeaten teams in American Athletic Conference play, taking their seventh straight game overall. Gary Clark led Cincinnati with 18 points, including two 3s that matched his career high.
SMU (14-4, 4-1) lost its 10-game winning streak, which tied for third-longest in school history. Sterling Brown led the Mustangs with a season-high 20 points and 11 rebounds, but missed a 3-point shot that would have given the Mustangs the lead with 10 seconds left.
Iowa 83, Purdue 78
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Peter Jok scored 29 points with eight assists and six rebounds and Iowa rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to beat No. 17 Purdue.
Freshman Tyler Cook had 16 points for the Hawkeyes (11-7, 3-2 Big Ten), who beat a ranked team at home for the second time this season.
Caleb Swanigan, who led Purdue (14-4, 3-2) with 17 points, missed a layup in front of the rim with 13.8 seconds left and the Boilermakers down 79-78. Cordell Pemsl missed a subsequent free throw, but Iowa got the ball back after a lengthy review and Jordan Bohannon hit two from the line.
Elida graduate Dakota Mathias missed a contested 3 with 4 seconds left for Purdue, which lost for the first time this season to a team not in this week’s Top 25.
Isaac Haas and Carsen Edward each scored 13 for the Boilermakers, who were outrebounded by the smaller Hawkeyes 35-28. Mathias finished with 10 points and four assists.
