The Ohio State Men’s Basketball team huddles up before the Ohio State-Illinois State game on Nov. 25. Ohio State won 94-67. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Despite multiple injuries at the point guard position, the Buckeyes are hitting their stride in the Big Ten conference.
Led by a scoring onslaught from sophomore E.J. Liddell and aided by a healthy scoring output from the bench, No. 21 Ohio State (11-3, 5-3) used an offensive explosion to collect a 87-81 road win against No. 14 Illinois (9-5, 5-3). Saturday’s win marked the third consecutive win for Ohio State.
“Players win games. Really proud of our guys’ effort today,” head coach Chris Holtmann said Saturday. “They made the plays throughout the game and down the stretch.”
With the game deadlocked at 15 points each, the Buckeyes utilized a 15-0 run to jump on the Illini in the first half.
Liddell largely spurred the first half explosion, pouring in 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. The trio of triples Liddell knocked down in the first half set a new career high for 3-pointers made in a game.
The Illinois native finished the game with a career-high 26 points on 4-of-7 shooting from deep. He also grabbed 7 rebounds.
Liddell’s first half success from beyond the 3-point arc was a microcosm of the Buckeyes success. Ohio State knocked down 7-of-11 3-point shots in the opening 20 minutes.
Ohio State finished the game hitting on 11-of-21 shots from deep.
Off the bench, graduate forward Seth Towns buried a pair of threes and scored 8 points in the first half. The Ohio State bench outscored the Illinois bench 17-7 in the opening 20 minutes.
The Buckeyes finished the game with a 24-19 advantage off the bench. Towns led the group with 11 points.
“I’m really just taking it game by game and obviously, some games are better than others,” Towns said Saturday. “It will be a rollercoaster season for our team and for me, individually, but just trying to stay as locked in as possible.”
In the process of building up the large lead, Ohio State turned the ball over only one time in the opening 15 minutes of the game.
However, increased pressure from the Illini led to six turnovers at halftime and 14 by the end of the game.
A lead that ballooned to as many as 18 points was trimmed to as few as two in the second half.
Junior guard Ayo Dosunmu helped lead the resurgence as he poured in 18 of his 22 points in the second half. He added five assists and four rebounds for the Illini.
Averaging 17.3 points and 10.1 points per game entering the game, sophomore Kofi Cockburn finished the game with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Helping stem the tide, junior Justin Ahrens knocked down three second-half threes — including one with under five minutes remaining to stretch the lead to 11 points — to help secure the win.
“He’s such a good shooter that when he has space, you don’t want him to turn it down,” Holtmann said. “They were making runs, they were playing well, but the reality is that was probably the best shot we were going to get on that possession even though it was transition and early in clock.”
Ohio State returns to the hardwood Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. with a home game against Purdue.
This story was updated Saturday at 3:19 p.m. with quotes from Chris Holtmann and Seth Towns.
