Ohio State Basketball Drops Third Straight in Loss to Michigan

Despite taking a late lead, the Ohio State Buckeyes continued to struggle to finish against the Michigan Wolverines Monday.

Ohio State (12-5, 2-4 Big Ten) dropped its third straight Big Ten game 73-65 in front of a packed crowd at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Mich on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to Michigan (7-10, 2-4 Big Ten).

Sophomore guard Bruce Thornton, who had seven in the first half, went 3-9 from the field, including 1-5 on a lot of quick 3s. Over those last five halves, Thornton shot 2-17 from downtown.

Ohio State struggled to find scoring from anywhere, but one light came from freshman forward Devin Royal, who had seven points and three rebounds in just six minutes off the bench. Royal hadn’t played the last two games — both losses — and averages less than eight minutes per game as he sits behind sophomore Felix Okpara and senior Zed Key.

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Senior forward Jamison Battle, who had been so hot the past few games, didn’t score at all in the first, thanks in large part to Michigan guard Nimari Burnett suffocating him on the defensive end.

However, Nkamhoua started off hot. The Tennessee transfer is averaging almost 17 points per game this season but had a quick 12 in the first half.

Even outside of Nkamhoua, however, the Wolverines got balanced scoring from around the team — sophomore guard Dug McDaniel, who leads the team in points, and senior forward Terrance Williams II each had eight in the first as well.

McDaniel hit a buzzer-beating three to put Michigan up nine heading into the half.

Head coach Chris Holtmann must have gotten his squad fired up at halftime because the Buckeyes came out of the locker room like a whole new team.

In just the first 3.5 minutes of the second half, sophomore forward Evan Mahaffey opened the scoring with quick back-to-back buckets in the paint before Battle took it to the rim with a monster slam to get him rolling. Shortly after, Battle came back down the floor and hit a 3 off a pick-and-pop.

Michigan went up nine in the second half before Ohio State stormed back with 12 minutes to go. The Buckeyes went on a 16-0 run in four minutes, putting them up four thanks to a resurrection from Thornton and Gayle.

The teams traded buckets and leads until the end of the game — while Michigan allowed Ohio State to creep back in, so did the Buckeyes, continuing their trend of struggling to finish late.

Thornton finished with 19 points, but Ohio State couldn’t hold onto its late lead and Michigan took advantage of open looks from beyond the arc as well as sloppy play from the Buckeyes to take their second conference win.

The Buckeyes return to action in Columbus on Saturday at noon against Penn State, streaming on Big Ten Network.