No. 2 Ohio State had too many fouls, too many turnovers and not enough stops Saturday night.
It was a devastating combination.
Victor Oladipo scored the go-ahead basket with 36 seconds to go, leading No. 13 Indiana to a 74-70 victory, snapping the Buckeyes' school record six-game winning streak over the Hoosiers.
''We've got to learn to play through that,'' Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. ''It's one of those things you've got to learn, to play with the foul trouble.''
The Buckeyes (13-2, 1-1 Big Ten) learned their lesson the hard way.
Despite having a better field-goal percentage, more rebounds and as many misses from the free -throw line (seven) as Indiana, Ohio State still wound up with its second loss of the season. They had won five straight since losing to Kansas three weeks ago in another 2 vs. 13 matchup.
But the Buckeyes never got in sync, largely because of foul trouble that stuck with them throughout the game.
''It makes you second-guess some plays you think you can make on the floor,'' said Aaron Craft, the Buckeyes' top scorer with 16 points. ''Sometimes you got to back off because you know you can't get a foul and you know they're calling it tight. It goes both ways.''
The victory adds yet another chapter to the Hoosiers' rapid re-emergence.
They became the first Indiana team to start 12-0 since the 1975-76 Hoosiers wound up as the last undefeated national champions.
Three weeks ago, they upset Kentucky for only the second win in school history over a No. 1 team at Assembly Hall. Now, Indiana is the ninth team since 1996-97 to beat both a No. 1 and a No. 2 in one season, and it joins Kansas in 2007-08 and Louisville in 2003-04 as the only teams over that span to achieve the feat in the same month. Only Louisville did it during the regular season.
''They (the players) just kept giving us (coaches) confidence,'' Indiana coach Tom Crean said. ''They came to every timeout, they were totally locked in and at the 7:38 mark, you could just see it in their eyes they were so locked in. They matched the Ohio State toughness and energy.''
The Hoosiers (13-1, 1-1) were far from perfect.
They shot 45.8 percent from the field, about 5 percentage points below their season average. They got outrebounded 35-28 and missed the same number of free throws (seven) as Ohio State. Foul trouble limited freshman center Cody Zeller, the engineer of Indiana's turnaround, to only 21 minutes, and he fouled out with 2:24 to go.
Indiana was still good enough.
The Hoosiers forced 17 turnovers and even with Zeller sitting out, somehow managed to outscore the bigger Buckeyes 38-34 in the paint.
''They've been punking us the past couple years and we realized that,'' Oladipo said after scoring 15 points. ''This year we had to go toe-to-toe with them.''
Jared Sullinger had 15 points and nine rebounds for the Buckeyes, and William Buford finished with 12 points but missed a possible go-ahead 3-pointer with about 5 seconds to play.
But it was foul trouble that made Ohio State look like something other than itself.
Sullinger, Buford and Deshaun Thomas combined to play only 29 minutes in the first half after each picked up their second fouls. Buford picked up two more in the first 3:32 of the second half, and Thomas picked up his third with 17:21 left in the game.
That forced coach Matta to mix-and-match his rotations in hopes of keeping a five-game winning streak alive.
''It was obviously a difficult challenge,'' he said. ''I thought we put ourselves in a pretty decent position.''
Jordan Hulls, who had 17 points, and Verdell Jones, who had 14 points, just wouldn't let Ohio State pull away.
When the Buckeyes rallied from a 33-32 halftime deficit to take a 44-41 lead, it looked like they might get rolling.
Instead, the Hoosiers fought back. And when Lenzelle Smith Jr. made Ohio State's first 3-pointer of the game, to give the Buckeyes a 51-47 lead with 10:39 to go, Indiana answered with four straight points to tie it.
It was that kind of night.
In the final 5 1/2 minutes, there were 10 ties or lead changes, including the three-point play from Sullinger that gave Ohio State a 68-67 lead and sent Zeller to the bench for good.
''It had the same effect as Kansas,'' Sullinger said. ''You walk off the floor, they hang an `L' on you and your ears are ringing because the fans are so loud.''
Jones answered with a layup for the Hoosiers, and Thomas countered with a 15-footer to give Ohio State a 70-69 lead.
From that point on, it was all about defense.
The Hoosiers didn't give up another point and took advantage after forcing another Buckeye turnover. Hulls deflected the pass, Jones picked it off and tossed it to Oladipo for the layup with 36 seconds left to make it 71-70.
Indiana closed it out with a free throw from Hulls, Watford's rebound of Buford's errant shot and two more free throws from Watford.
''They gave us pumpkin heads the past few years,'' Jones said. ''To finally to get over that hump and get the `W,' that's huge for this team.''
