For all but the opening 20 seconds of the game Thursday, the Buckeyes held the lead, but a late surge by the Golden Gophers made head coach Chris Holtmann’s bunch earn its first win in five games.
No. 9 Ohio State (19-8, 13-8) took advantage of the shooting disparity to knock Minnesota (14-15, 6-15) from the Big Ten Tournament. Despite their 14-point lead being cut to as few as 1 point in the closing seconds, the Buckeyes downed the Golden Gophers 79-75 to avenge their loss in Minneapolis Jan. 3.
As the win snaps a four-game losing streak for the Buckeyes, Holtmann said his team was overjoyed to get back to their winning ways.
“I think the guys were excited, you could tell a little bit late there,” Holtmann said. “We knew Minnesota was a tough team, but I think as much as anything guys were excited.”
Ohio State jumped out to an early double-digit lead as its defense clamped down, holding Minnesota scoreless for the first 6:55. The Buckeyes used that time to go on a 13-0 run to open the game.
Redshirt junior forward Justice Sueing said the attacking mindset was born from the Buckeyes inability to start fast against the Golden Gophers in the first meeting.
“A big emphasis for us today was to come out and throw that first punch,” Sueing said. “We made it a big emphasis today to come out and make sure that we were that team — the more aggressive team and the tougher team.
Following a 36.7-percent shooting performance in the win against Northwestern Wednesday, the Golden Gophers struggled to find an offensive rhythm in their second game in Indianapolis — hitting on just 25 percent of their shots in the opening half.
Minnesota finished the game shooting 36.4 percent from the field, and the Golden Gophers delivered on just 8-of-32 shots from three. The Gophers also turned the ball over 11 times, resulting in 21 points for Ohio State.
The Buckeyes also struggled to connect from deep in the early goings as neither team hit a 3-pointer until 5:36 remaining in the first half. Ohio State finished 4-of-12 from three.
However, the Golden Gophers were without two starters in junior center Liam Robbins and guard Gabe Kalscheur — who combined for more than half of Minnesota’s 77 points in its first meeting with Ohio State.
Without their 7-foot center roaming the paint, the Gophers struggled to keep the Buckeyes at bay on the interior. Ohio State held an 44-34 scoring advantage in the paint and feasted above the rim, securing 14 dunks on the afternoon.
With the Buckeyes staking out an advantage on the inside, Holtmann praised his team’s handling of the offensive gameplan.
“We were really intentional about playing through the paint and even turning down some threes at times,” Holtmann said. “The guys really, really followed our offensive gameplan, I mean they were terrific about being intentional about getting what we wanted.”
Robbins’ absence also benefited senior forward Kyle Young, who opened postseason play with a vintage performance. Young finished with 11 points on 4-of-7 from the field and six rebounds, along with a pair of emphatic dunks.
Sophomore forward E.J. Liddell also took advantage of the opened up interior, dropping 14 points while hauling in five rebounds.
Despite a few key absences, Minnesota did have redshirt junior guard Marcus Carr, who led the team with more than 19 points per game during the regular season.
Carr dropped just 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting to open the tournament, and he was unable to get comfortable in his second outing of the postseason.
The Canada native opened the game hitting on just one of his first six shots. Carr finished the game with 24 points on 29-percent shooting to go along with four assists.
Freshman guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. also picked up the scoring burden and finished with 18 points on 8-of-22 from the field.
Countering Mashburn from the perimeter was junior guard Duane Washington Jr., who dropped 16 points on 6-of-9 from the field and four assists. Sueing also added 16 points on 44 percent from the field.
Redshirt senior guard CJ Walker paced Washington in assists, finishing the game with six dimes of his own.
The duo of Walker and redshirt junior forward Musa Jallow led the way for the Ohio State reserves, combining for 18 points. The Buckeye bench outscored Minnesota’s reserves 20-15.
Ohio State returns to Lucas Oil Stadium Friday to take on No. 20 Purdue at approximately 2 p.m. on BTN.
“Purdue is a really good team, we lost to them twice this year, so we just want to go out there, obviously kinda that revenge kinda thing to get them back, and just win the game,” Walker said. “(In) March, you just want to survive in advance and do what we have to do.”
Photos by Mackenzie Shanklin
This story was updated Thursday at 5:31 p.m. with quotes from Chris Holtmann, Justice Sueing and CJ Walker.
