Faced with many obstacles — some self-inflicted — the Buckeyes overcame adversity Wednesday to claim their fifth win in six games. 

No. 13 Ohio State (13-4, 7-4) turned the ball over a season-high 17 times against Penn State (5-7, 2-6). Despite the uncharacteristic mistakes from a team that entered the game averaging just 10.3 turnovers a game, the Buckeyes escaped with an 83-79 win over the Nittany Lions. 

Penn State finished the game with 23 points off Ohio State turnovers. 

“We knew that they led the (Big) Ten in steals, they gamble a lot, they play aggressive and they play hard on D,” redshirt junior forward Justice Sueing said. “Unfortunately, we let them turn us over a little bit too much and we’ve gotta watch film and clean that up.”

After never trailing in the first half, the Buckeyes surrendered the lead less than five minutes into the second half. 

Trailing by as many as 8 points, the Buckeyes paired defense with timely offense to climb back into the game. 

“We had a lot of guys talking in the huddle,” head coach Chris Holtmann said. “In those moments, you want to hear players’ voices and we heard them.” 

With the game tied at 79 with just under a minute remaining, sophomore forward E.J. Liddell, who finished the game with a team-high 22 points, drew a foul and knocked down a pair of free throws to give the Buckeyes the advantage. 

Liddell said he was focused on closing out the game in crunch time. 

“I was just emphasizing in the last four minute war that it’s winning time,” Liddell said. “There’s no better feeling to get up there and win it for the team.” 

Liddell finished the game 10-of-10 from the free throw line. 

Ohio State’s defense set the tone early and forced the Nittany Lions to shoot 1-of-9 to open the game. 

Despite a rough start, four different Nittany Lions finished with 10 or more points. 

The Nittany Lions received a scoring boost from sophomore forward Seth Lundy, who eclipsed his season average of 12.7 points per game in the first half. 

Lundy finished the game with 26 points on 4-of-8 shooting from beyond the 3-point line. 

“Lundy’s a really good player. He’s a hard matchup, he’s a really hard matchup,” Holtmann said. “They’re offensively a challenge to guard and we struggled guarding them tonight.”

The Nittany Lions entered the game as the Big Ten’s best offensive rebounding team, collecting 14 offensive rebounds a game in conference play. 

Penn State collected 11 offensive rebounds Wednesday, but the Buckeyes finished the game with an 18-11 advantage in second chance points. 

Sueing led the rebounding effort for Ohio State. Sueing pulled in 10 rebounds to go along with his 13 points. 

To open the game, junior forward Justin Ahrens came out firing. Ahrens knocked down 3-of-5 3-pointers in the first half but finished the game without scoring again.

As a team, the Buckeyes, who broke a four-game streak of 10 or more threes in a game by hitting only five against Wisconsin Saturday, connected on 7-of-22 shots from beyond the arc. 

Freshman forward Zed Key helped establish an interior presence for Ohio State’s offense against Penn State. Key, who entered the game averaging 6.4 points per game on 60.1 percent shooting, tallied 9 points in the opening half.

“I thought Zed was terrific in early post ups — it’s something we work on every day. Zed Key was fantastic in early post ups, early clock post ups, I thought he was fantastic tonight,” Holtmann said. 

The New York native finished the game with 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting. 

With the help of Key, the Buckeyes outscored the Nittany Lions 38-24 in the paint. 

The Buckeyes take on Michigan State in their second-consecutive home bout Sunday at 1 p.m. 

This story was updated Wednesday at 10:13 p.m. with quotes from Chris Holtmann, Justice Sueing and E.J. Liddell.