Ohio State Buckeyes Showed More Confidence But Couldn’t Close The Game Out
By Ric McElroy
The Voice of the Fan was happy to see improved play, but hated to see poor execution down the stretch again.
After a two game winning streak in Big Ten play, the Ohio State Buckeyes played Northwestern today at the Schottenstein Center. Could they continue their confident and winning ways?
Right away JaQuan Lyle received two ticky, tacky fouls and had to sit for a portion of the first half. Despite that, the Buckeyes showed early on enough energy to end up leading the game.
The Wildcats unfortunately recovered and took on a 27-23 lead with just over five minutes in the first half. The Bucks did come back however to retake the lead on a Kam Williams layup in a first half that was a series of spurts between the two opponents.
It was clear in the first half that the game was turning into a real battle. With just under two minutes, the back and forth continued as the Wildcats once again assumed a lead, this time 34-28.
Ohio State’s offense was getting sloppy as the half was wrapping up. Lyle did hit a deep late though to make Northwestern’s lead at halftime to 36-31. Although they were down, the good news is that it seems that recently the Buckeyes plays better in second half.
The Buckeyes came out of halftime and hit a three pointer thanks to from Andre Wesson, a freshman to make the score 39 all. Even though progress was being made as a whole, Micah Potter did pick up his third foul.
The back and forth game continued on from the first half. There were more series of runs by each team and lots of foul shots which doesn’t favor Ohio State with their less than stellar execution of free throw attempts.
As the game progressed, C.J. Jackson made two key baskets for the Buckeyes to go up 55-52 with 8:33 left. Today’s attendance looked like a full house but the crowd was not very boisterous or loud for the home team.
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One happy stat for all Buckeyes fans is that Trevor Thompson played well as he accumulated his sixth double double of the season. On the other hand, Jae’Sean Tate needs to work on his offense. Marc Loving also looked like the old player we were used to seeing, rather than not the one from the last two games.
With under two minutes to go, the crowd finally got into it. With just 1:03 left and a Northwestern five point lead, it did not look good for the Buckeyes. Their really bad free throw shooting late did not help matter either.
Potter hit a three to decrease the lead to a two point deficit with 23.6 seconds left. Northwestern’s Vic Law got fouled and nets both shots to stretch the score back to a four point lead. Talk about a nail bitter!
On the other end, Loving tipped in a shot but missed the and one attempt. The Wildcats continued to stretch their lead on two more foul shots, this time by by Scottie Lindsey. Lindsey ended up being the Wildcats’ leading scorer with 21 points.
Next: No Need To Worry Buckeyes Fans
Shortly there after, Tate missed both foul shots and Northwestern won the game 74-72. Quite frankly, the Buckeyes needs extensive foul shooting practice as it cost them yet another game!