Ohio State basketball: Poor three-point shooting dooms Bucks

The Ohio State basketball team is normally a good three-point shooting team. They were shooting close to 41% from behind the arc coming into the game against Wisconsin. They did not come close to that percentage against the Badgers. Instead, they were much worse.

Ohio State didn’t hit a three until the second half, going 0-8 in the first half. In contrast, Wisconsin went 7-13 from deep. Because of that, the Buckeyes found themselves down 13 at half. They only scored 27 points in that first half, and that poor first half doomed them.

Even after the Buckeyes went on an 11-0 run at the end of the game, it still wasn’t enough. The Buckeyes fell at Wisconsin 78-68. E.J. Liddell fouled out in this one, but he was pretty darn good before that happened. He was Ohio State’s leading scorer with 18 points.

The Ohio State basketball team had five players score in double-figures. In fact, they outshot the Badgers from the field. They shot 50% while Wisconsin only shot 45.6%. The difference was from behind the arc. Wisconsin hit 10 of them while the Buckeyes only hit 4.

It hurt not to have Meechie Johnson Jr. in this game. He’s one of Ohio State’s best shooters and he is not afraid to take big shots in big moments. Instead, the Buckeyes couldn’t get enough offense when they needed it. It was a hard game to win from the beginning.

It’s hard for any team to go into Wisconsin and win. That was clearly true tonight. Ohio State just isn’t an elite team right now. That doesn’t mean they can’t get there, but they aren’t there yet. They need to be more consistent offensively.

We’ll see how they play this Sunday against Penn State. They need to win that game for sure.