Big Ten Roundup (March 8): Ohio State Beats Wisconsin, Minnesota Surprises Nebraska

The Big Ten Tournament is expected to be wide open this year, and the first night started that trend, with lower seeds Ohio State and Minnesota grabbing victories on Wednesday night at the United Center in Chicago. Wisconsin and Nebraska have early exits.

CHICAGO, Ill. — Ohio State has had an easily forgettable season, but the Buckeyes apparently want to stick around a while longer at the end.

The Buckeyes, the No. 13 seed in the 14-team Big Ten Tournament rushed out to a 27-point lead against No. 12 seed Wisconsin, but then hung on for dear life in the second half before winning 65-57 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament at the United Center in Chicago..

Ohio State, which lost 14 of 15 games in a stretch earlier, have now won three of their last four games and will face No. 5 seed Iowa in Thursday's second round.

Sean McNeil led the Buckeyes (14-18) with 17 points off the bench. Justice Sueing had 16 and Bruce Thornton added 15. 

"We had a good kick to us to start this,'' Sueing said. "We knew we had to come out with aggression and execute our game plan and we were able to get a comfortable lead. Obviously we need to work on maintaining that as we continue on in the tournament, but a couple months ago, you couldn't have said that we'd have been able to stay as poised as we were today.''

Wisconsin (17-14) was brutal early and only scored 18 first-half points. But Tyler Wahl scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half and the Badgers were able to cut that huge deficit to four with 52 seconds to go, but couldn't finish.

"I thought they were way more aggressive than we were (in the first half),'' Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. "They put us on our heels in a lot of situations. They got very comfortable with what they were doing offensively. By the time we'd rallied and played with more aggressiveness, more physicality in the second half, obviously we had ourselves dug into way too deep of a hole.

"It's a good lesson for us in terms of the tale of two halves, but I thought the difference was the aggressiveness and the physicality they played with in the first half that we did not match, and second half we finally started to do some things how we've done them for part of the year.''

It was rare seeing these two teams play on a Wednesday night. These were the lowest tourney seeds ever for both teams. Wisconsin was just 4-for-22 from three-point range.

Minnesota forward Joshua Ola-Joseph (1) dunks against Nebraska during the second half on Wednesday. (David Banks-USA TODAY Sports)

Minnesota 78, Nebraska 75

Minnesota only one two games throughout the entire Big Ten regular season. Now they're going to try to match that total in just two days.

The No. 14-seed Gophers surprised No. 11 seed Nebraska 78-75 on Wednesday night in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament at the United Center in Chicago. They had four starters in double figures, led by forward Dawson Garcia, who had 18 points, 13 rebound and six assists. Ta'lon Cooper had 16 points and a school-record 12 assists, breaking the tournament record held by his coach, Ben Johnson.

Minnesota (9-21) lost twice to Nebraska during the regular season and fell into a quick 8-0 hole on Wednesday night, but stormed back midway through the first half to take the lead after a 34-17 run. The Gophers led by as many as 11 points in the second half, too, but the Cornhuskers made a rally and the last five minutes were basically played in a one-possession game. Nebraska got as close as one point. 

Keisei Tominaga, who had 23 points for Nebraska (16-16), got a good look at a three-pointer on the Cornhuskers' final possession, but it missed. Minnesota will now play Maryland on Thursday night at approximately 9 p.m. ET. 

"I thought the resolve and toughness that our guys showed, both mental and physical, the entire game, especially after getting off to a rough start, was phenomenal,'' Minnesota coach Ben Johnson said. "And that's what it takes to win at this level and in this tournament.

"I thought our guys were fully bought in, in what we were trying to do scheme-wise, offensively, and they did a great job executing. All credit goes to those guys. They made the right plays when the right plays needed to be made. I just thought our toughness really showed on both sides of the ball.''

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