Ohio State’s one glaring roster issue has never been more evident than it was Sunday, as Minnesota’s size down low laid the groundwork for a third-straight Golden Gopher win over the Buckeyes.

Junior Liam Robbins, a 7-foot forward, dropped 27 points as the undersized Buckeye big men could do little to answer, and No. 21 Minnesota (10-2, 3-2 Big Ten) ran away with a 77-60 win against No. 25 Ohio State (8-3, 2-3 Big Ten) at home.

“We knew we were a little undersized guarding him,” Ohio State junior guard Duane Washington said. “He played a hell of a game, made some really tough shots, affected the game in a variety of ways. Credit to him.”

Seven minutes into the second half, Robbins already had seven free throw attempts in the period alone, as the Golden Gopher big man couldn’t help but draw fouls on the Ohio State bigs on nearly every post touch. Twelve of his points came from the charity stripe on Sunday.

Once junior guard Marcus Carr, the Big Ten’s third-leading scorer, finally got going, the Golden Gophers pulled away even further, as he scored 8-of-11 points during a Minnesota stretch in the middle of the half that put Ohio State down 17.

By game’s end, Robbins and Carr combined for 42 points, and Robbins added 14 boards, five blocks and four assists to boot.

"It wasn't just their big's size," Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said. "Their guards are very physical. Very physical. And we didn't handle it well. We didn't handle the stuff that you need to handle in a game that's this physical."

Washington led the way for Ohio State with his best shooting night of the season, shooting 7-of-12 to finish with 21 points, but it was far from enough to keep the Buckeyes in the game in the second half.

A cold start from Carr, who scored 56 points in two games against Ohio State last year, didn’t stop the Golden Gophers from heading into halftime up 43-37, as he hit just 1-of-4 shot attempts in the first frame.

In place of Carr’s usual scoring output, Robbins torched the Buckeyes with 16 first-half points on 5-of-7 shooting, leveraging his size advantage to shoot six free throws in the period.

Minnesota jumped out to a 7-0 start on the Buckeyes in the blink of an eye in the first half, and Robbins and junior guard Both Gach scored 14 of the first 16 Golden Gopher points as they took a 16-5 lead early on.

But Ohio State countered with a 10-1 run of its own to tie the game 17-17 at the 11:39 mark after two free throws from sophomore forward E.J. Liddell, who finished the game with 10 points.

"I'm just very disappointed in myself," Liddell said. "I gotta get better –– a lot better –– if we want to win some games in this conference, because my team needs me and I just can't let them down like that again."

That Buckeye run was buoyed by back-to-back 3-pointers by Washington, who had likely his best half of the season with a headlining first 20 minutes for Ohio State.

Washington went into the locker room with a team-high 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting, and his three 3-point makes went a long way in helping the Buckeyes hang tough early.

Another 3 from Buckeye forward Justin Ahrens ended a four-minute scoring drought for Ohio State to cut the Minnesota lead to four, but Carr’s first basket pushed it back to six in the final moments of the half.

Ohio State returns home for a 6:30 p.m. matchup with Penn State at the Schottenstein Center on Wednesday.