Minnesota Scares Ohio State Late, Buckeyes Survive with Big Ten Tournament Win
Survive and advance.
That's the name of the game this time of year, and perhaps that pressure was exactly what the Buckeyes needed after a late-season skid. Minnesota gave the Buckeyes a late heart attack, but OSU survived 79-75.
After not having won a game since Feb. 18 at Penn State, the Buckeyes avenged an early-January loss at Minnesota by ending the Golden Gophers' season. The Scarlet and Gray never trailed in Thursday's second round game, even though the Gophers cut it to one point with eight seconds to play.
With the win, the Buckeyes advance to Friday's Big Ten quarterfinal against No. 4-seed Purdue, whom they've lost to twice during the regular season. Tipoff is scheduled for approximately 2 p.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Buckeyes also snapped a 4-game losing streak, dating back to Feb. 21 vs. No. 1-seed Michigan.
The Buckeyes got great balance offensively. Five players scored at least 10 points, led by Justice Sueing and Duane Washington Jr. with 16 points . E.J. Liddell (12), C.J. Walker (10) and Kyle Young (11) all contributed meaningful points.
Musa Jallow added eight points off the bench.
Ohio State opened the game on a 13-0 run and didn't surrender a point for nearly seven full minutes as they raced out front of Minnesota. Unfortunately, the Scarlet and Gray couldn't put the Gophers away early; they committed turnovers on four straight possessions after opening with that big run and couldn't extend it further.
While the Buckeyes got to the rim regularly, they didn't score a single field goal outside the paint until Liddell hit a 3-ball more than 15 minutes into the game.
OSU got hot late in the half and connected on its last seven shots from the field to take a 39-27 lead into the locker room. Meanwhile, Minnesota's top three guards - Marcus Carr, Jamal Mashburn Jr. and Tre' Williams - combined to hit just 6-of-30 shots in that first half.
Minnesota showed good fight early in the second half, but the Gophers had a hard time cutting into the deficit. They finally got within four points on thanks to 3-balls from Both Gach and Williams. The Buckeyes lead was just 53-49 with 7:34 to go.
But after Chris Holtmann called a timeout, Ohio State responded with by hitting seven straight shots and a 17-7 run to push the lead back to 70-56.
But the game was far from over.
Ohio State struggled to break the press late, but as the Gophers tightened things considerably at the end. Minnesota got the ball back with 34.2 seconds, trailing only 75-71.
After Washington missed two free throws, Marcus Carr hit a 3-ball to make it a 75-74 game. Liddell answered by hitting a pair of foul shots to push it to a 3-point game with eight seconds left.
Walker fouled Marcus Carr in the back court for a 1-and-1. Carr hit the first, but missed the second. Washington was fouled with a 77-75 lead and hit both foul shots to ice the game.
The Buckeyes shared the ball extremely well, finishing the game with 19 assists on 28 total baskets.
Plenty more to come from Indianapolis after Chris Holtmann's press conference, which you can watch live on BuckeyesNow.com and on our YouTube channel.
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