Ohio State junior guard Bruce Thornton (2) drives to the net during the game against Nebraska Sunday. The Buckeyes fell to the Cornhuskers 79-71. Credit: Ohio State Athletics
Ohio State had itself a five-point lead at halftime and it looked like the Buckeyes could close out the game in the second half.
Instead, Ohio State crumbled in the second half.
Despite a career-high 30 points from guard Micah Parrish, the Buckeyes (14-10, 6-7 Big Ten) shot only 36% in the second half and fell to Nebraska (16-8, 6-7 Big Ten) 79-71 Sunday afternoon at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Cornhuskers guard Brice Williams led his squad with 24 points and 10 boards as Nebraska extended its winning streak to four.
Williams opened the game with a deep 3-pointer from the left hash and got the home crowd going early.
Buckeyes guard John Mobley Jr. answered with two triples to give Ohio State a two-point advantage, but a 13-2 Cornhuskers run that spanned nearly four minutes gave Nebraska a 21-12 lead with 12 minutes to play in the first half.
Ohio State battled back with an 8-0 run, fueled by two offensive rebounds from guard Evan Mahaffey, which cut the Cornhuskers lead to two.
Parrish then intercepted a pass from Nebraska forward Berke Buyuktuncel and attacked the rim with a defender draped on him to complete an and-1 and give Ohio State a 30-29 edge. Parrish went into the half with a then-game-high 14 points.
A pull-up jumper from Thornton gave the Buckeyes a 39-34 lead heading into the break. But that was the Buckeyes’ leading scorer’s last made field goal of the game as he fell flat in the final 20 minutes.
Luckily for Ohio State, Parrish continued his hot scoring afternoon after Thornton found him for a wide-open 3-pointer to extend the Buckeyes lead to eight. Nebraska fought back with an 8-0 run, capped off by a three by Buyuktuncel to deadlock the game at 42.
Then Williams drove into the lane for an off-balanced floater, before recording an and-1 in transition to cap off an 11-0 run that gave the Cornhuskers the upper hand, 55-48 with eight minutes left.
The Buckeyes stuck around and back-to-back 3-pointers from Parrish and Mobley cut the Husker lead to just two.
Four Nebraska free throws extended its lead to 5, but Mobley responded with a 3-pointer from Nebraska’s logo to bring the lead back to two, 62-60, with just under four minutes to play.
But when the Buckeyes needed stops, Nebraska continued to extend its lead down the stretch as Williams scored six points in a minute to push the gap to seven.
In 30 seconds of chaos, Mahaffey soared over multiple Cornhusker defenders for a dunk before Nebraska broke the Buckeyes’ press and guard Sam Hoiberg dished a bounce pass to forward Juwan Gary who slammed it home to give them a nine-point advantage.
A one-handed tomahawk dunk from Gary got the Cornhusker faithful on their feet as Nebraska closed out its 79-71 victory.
Ohio State returns home Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. to take on the Washington Huskies at the Schottenstein Center.
