It might have been a little closer than expected but Penn State’s wrestling team defeated sixth-ranked Ohio State 29-18 on Sunday in Columbus.

Nico Megaludis staked the third-ranked Nittany Lions (No. 1/Intermat power index) to a 4-0 lead with a 9-1 win over Nikko Triggas in a battle of guys named Nico/Nikko.

The Buckeyes’ strength lies with the Stieber brothers as No. 1 Logan pinned Jordan Conaway at 133 and No. 2 Hunter decked Derek Reber at 141.

Reber again was subbing for injured Bryan Pearsall of Warwick, who is expected to be back in the lineup for Senior Day Feb 17 against Rider in Rec Hall.

The Buckeyes jumped out to a 15-4 lead in front of a large Columbus crowd when Cam Tessari upset Andrew Alton 3-1. Alton was controlled by Tessari from the top position.

“I'm not exactly sure what's wrong; it's something I have to figure out,’’ Penn State assistant coach Cody Sanderson said about Alton on the postgame show on the Penn State radio network.

“It's my responsibility to make sure he’s 100 percent prepared, and technically I don't think there was anything. When he had to get out, he got out. But we have to find out why it took 2:30 to get there.’’

Dylan Alton then downed No. 19 Josh Demas 4-3 in another closely contested bout to bring Penn State back to 15-7.

The powerful part of the Lions’ lineup kicked in as David Taylor pinned Mark Martin with five seconds left in the first period, only to have the momentum derailed when No. 7 Nick Heflin of Ohio State downed No. 5 Matt Brown 3-2 with a late takedown.

“Yeah, that was a frustrating match,’’ Cody Sanderson said about Brown.

“My unofficial tally was 15 shots to 3 shots [for Brown] so that's pretty lopsided as far as one guy trying to score points. Their guy was waiting, and wanted to run around, and Matt left his feet. You can’t leave your feet with that little time left, because he didn't have any time to scramble.

“He's (Brown) pretty upset, but that's OK. I feel like we can turn that around in the conference meet.’’

Penn State’s Ed Ruth of Susquehanna Twp. at 184 promptly pinned C.J. Magrum with a nearside cradle in just 1:51 to give Penn State its first lead at 19-18 since the opening bout.

“Ed went out there to do what he does,’’ Sanderson said. “He went out and got it, and the crowd cooled down.’’

Unbeaten Quentin Wright faced Central Dauphin product Kenny Courts, a redshirt freshman for Ohio State who has been at 197 despite being a 184-pounder because of injury.

Wright posted a 9-1 decision and at one point rolled through across his back to counter a penetrating double-leg takedown shot by Courts.

“He did a great job of getting his hips back,’’ Sanderson said. “We didn't want to overpursue, so Quentin waited and fired and got on top.’’

Up by five at 23-18, heavyweight Jimmy Lawson wrestled again in place of Jon Gingrich. Lawson took down OSU’s 12th-ranked Peter Capone to his back but Capone injured his shoulder on the move. Lawson scored another nearfall before Capone defaulted to set the final at 29-18.