Ohio State’s Zed Key Unavailable For Sunday’s Game At Maryland

Key suffered a sprained shoulder while attempting to pull down a defensive rebound in Thursday’s loss to Purdue.

Ohio State junior forward Zed Key will be unavailable for Sunday's game at Maryland (1 p.m. on ESPN) after suffering a sprained shoulder in Thursday's 71-69 loss to No. 1 Purdue.

Ohio State Men’s Basketball Availability vs. Maryland 1-8-23
 
UNAVAILABLE⁰Zed Key (shoulder)

— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) January 8, 2023

The 6-foot-8 and 255-pound Key, who is averaging 12.4 points and 7.8 rebounds this season, got tangled up with Boilermakers center Zach Edey on a defensive rebound attempt just under four minutes into the game.

He immediately grabbed for his left shoulder but finished out the play before heading to the locker room, where he was evaluated by the training staff and ruled out for the remainder of the contest.

Neither head coach Chris Holtmann or assistant Jake Diebler were able to provide an update on Key’s status this week, but he’s been dealing with shoulder soreness since the the 81-72 loss at Duke on Nov. 30.

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With Key sidelined, freshman center Felix Okpara limited the 7-foot-4, 285-pound Edey to 16 points and 11 rebounds while adding five points, five rebounds and three blocks of his own in 30 minutes of action.

“I thought he did some good things,” Holtmann said during his postgame press conference. “He obviously got moved off his spot a lot, but I thought Felix really competed, as I expected he would.”

The 6-foot-11 and 220-pound Okpara, who will presumably get his first-career start on Sunday, is averaging 4.0 points and 3.9 rebounds in just under 14 minutes per game this season.

“(Felix) did a good job of coming in, being able to give us minutes with Zed coming out,” sixth-year senior forward Justice Sueing said. “We had to play a little harder, especially not having our main five in.”

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