Saturday, Payne made a return to Value City Arena, home of the No. 3 Buckeyes, and delivered again. This time, though, Payne — who scored a career-high 15 points without missing a shot — and the Spartans walked away victorious.

“I don’t know if it’s because he’s from Ohio,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “But as (senior forward Draymond Green) said after, that was the biggest game maybe of his whole career if you looked at all the things he did.”

Payne added three offensive rebounds, two blocks and a clutch shot late in Saturday’s game, as the Spartans (20-5 overall, 9-3 Big Ten) beat Ohio State 58-48 to move into a tie for first place in the Big Ten with the Buckeyes (21-4, 9-3). The win also ended Ohio State’s 39-game home winning streak and gave the Spartans their first road victory since Jan. 3 at Wisconsin.

With his dad, brothers and cousins in attendance, Payne wasted little time getting involved. After forward Deshaun Thomas struck first for the Buckeyes, Payne scored the next four points and said after the game he knew he and his teammates had to come out ready.

“I think it was just a game we had to come out and win,” Payne said. “We had a lot on the line. We just came out with a lot of energy and played hard.”

Following Payne’s flurry, most of the first 20 minutes featured both teams trading blows and responding to their opponent’s runs. After Ohio State scored seven in a row to take a 9-4 lead, Green responded with a 7-1 spurt of his own to put his team ahead 11-10.

Jared Sullinger then knocked down two free throws, but Payne nailed a jumper to give the Spartans a 13-12 lead with 11:22 to play in the half. MSU would never trail again, as the Spartans had an answer for whatever Ohio State threw at them.

“Everything wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t the prettiest game,” Green said. “But every time they made a run, we punched them back, and I think that was the best thing we did.

MSU spent the remainder of the half building its lead.

And one possession after Payne slammed home a putback for his 10th and 11th points, sophomore guard Keith Appling finished at the rim to give the Spartans a 35-25 halftime advantage.

In the second half, MSU’s defense took over. The Buckeyes shot just 33.3 percent in the first half, but the Spartans clamped down even more in the final 20 minutes by holding Ohio State to 21.9 percent shooting after halftime.

The 26.4 percent shooting for the game and 48 points scored both were season lows for the Buckeyes. A large part of MSU’s defensive success came in holding Sullinger to 5-for-15 (33.3 percent) from the field and forcing the star forward into 10 turnovers.

Izzo gave much of the credit to Payne and junior center Derrick Nix, but Nix, who chipped in six points in 19 minutes, credited the guards for making it hard on Sullinger each time he put the ball on the floor.

“That was real helpful,” Nix said. “We worked on that all day in practice because (Sullinger) can’t be guarded one-on-one. He draws the defenders, and that’s what we did when he got the ball on the block. We used the guards to dig down and make him pick the ball up.”

Unfortunately for Sullinger, when he did pick the ball up and pass, his teammates were unable to hit shots, as the Buckeyes made just 2-of-15 3-pointers.

After the game, Izzo said his team might have tired out Ohio State, which had five players play more than 30 minutes and two — Sullinger and guard Aaron Craft — play the entire game.

“I will say this, I thought Ohio State missed some shots that they normally make,” Izzo said. “And I’m hoping that’s because we tried to run ‘em, run ‘em, run ‘em.”

The Buckeyes did have one final push, cutting the Spartans’ lead to 44-40 with 6:24 left to play. But after an MSU timeout, Izzo put the ball in Green’s hands, and the Spartans outscored Ohio State 14-4 the rest of the way.

Finishing one rebound shy of his 14th double-double, Green scored 12 points to go with two assists. Appling scored 14 but committed seven of MSU’s 16 turnovers.

Izzo said it took a team effort to leave Columbus with the upset win. But with six games to play, including the season finale against the Buckeyes on March 4 at Breslin Center, he said the Spartans still have a long way to go before they can start celebrating.

“I just thought in general we played pretty good, maybe our best in a lot of ways,” Izzo said. “And still, (we) barely beat them. Ohio State’s the best team in the league, but on this given day, we were able to get them.”