Battle's Five Threes Not Enough as Ohio State Falls to Indiana

Chris Holtmann's squad needs an answer to finish games.

Despite another big game from senior forward Jamison Battle, the Ohio State Buckeyes (12-3, 2-2 Big Ten) lost to the Indiana Hoosiers (11-4, 3-1 Big Ten) 71-65 in a conference battle Saturday night.

The teams stayed close nearly the whole game, as the Hoosiers only pulled away late in the second half. Ohio State led by as many as seven in the first and nine in the second.

Battle started off hot, putting up 11 first-half points. Indiana had well-distributed scoring, including 16 combined points from senior guard Xavier Johnson and sophomore center Kel'el Ware.

Battle continued to shoot well, finishing the game 5-10 from beyond the arc, 17 points and nine rebounds. This was the fourth straight game he's made at least five threes and has scored in double figures in 10 straight.

Although the game stayed close early in the second half, it seemed Ohio State would take off after a big dunk from sophomore guard Roddy Gayle Jr. with about 10 minutes left to put the Buckeyes up a bucket.

However, Johnson hit a 3 with 9:50 left, completely shifting the momentum toward the Hoosiers for the rest of the game.

Indiana sophomore forward Malik Reneau also came alive in the second with 19 points, including a big lob late to get the crowd going.

Reneau and Johnson combined for 16 of the team's last 21 points.

Battle couldn't find much help on the offensive end, as the sophomore backcourt duo of Gayle and Bruce Thornton combined for 18 points on 7-34 shooting and 0-12 from 3 in the game and had an additional five turnovers together.

However, both sophomore center Felix Okpara and senior center Zed Key continued their production in conjunction, as they posted 17 points and 20 rebounds together. But neither were able to contain Reneau in the paint.

Although the Buckeyes started off the year on a high note, they continue to struggle to finish games. Gayle has shot poorly early in games recently — for Ohio State to reach their full potential, their backcourt, bigs and Battle all need to keep up their production and defense.

Ohio State returns home to play No. 21 Wisconsin (11-3, 3-0 Big Ten) on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., streaming on Big Ten Network.