Ohio State entered the day having lost two in a row and staring at a potential 0-2 start to the Big Ten season, but Bruce Thornton and Devin Royal would have none of that, combining for 44 of Ohio State’s 80 points leading the host Buckeyes to an 80-66 win over Rutgers. The win improves the Buckeyes to 6-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play while the Scarlet Knights dropped their Big Ten opener and fell to 5-4. The Buckeyes utilized a 46-18 points in the paint and a 22-6 advantage in points off of turnovers to build a lead as large as 17 and coast to a big conference win. Thornton and Royal each scored a game high 22, a career high for Royal, to lead Ohio State and Micah Parrish added 12 for the Buckeyes who finished the game hitting 55.2% from the floor and 6 of 18 from long range. Rutgers, which was held by a stingy Buckeye defense to 42% shooting and 7 of 19 from deep, was led by Dylan Harper’s 18, while Ace Bailey chipped in 12 and Emmanuel Ogbole added 10.
The game was back and forth for much of the first half as Rutgers opened the game red hot from the floor, but Ohio State settled in and a 7-0 run midway through the first half put Ohio State ahead to stay. The Scarlet Knights went on a 6-0 run of their own to close to within two, but the Buckeyes and Buckeyes closed the first half on an 8-2 run to take a 39-31 lead into the locker room. The Buckeyes shot 56.7% from the field in the first 20 minutes, led by Thornton’s 14, who knocked down 6 of 7 shot attempts.
Rutgers got as close as four early in the second half, but the Buckeyes quickly answered with a 4-0 run, capped off by a Thornton dunk in transition, bringing the crowd to their feet and forcing Rutgers to call timeout. From there, it was the Devin Royal show, scoring 7 consecutive Buckeye points at one point as Ohio State built a lead that never got closer than 8 for the rest of the game and was cemented late when Royal lobbed to Sean Stewart who threw it down with authority electrifying the bench and the crowd en route to a big home win.
Safe to say Ohio State needed this one. Coming off the heartbreaker with Pitt and the thrashing at the hands of Maryland, the Buckeyes needed something positive to not only gain some confidence, but to get even in conference play. The stat sheet certainly was filled by the combination of Thornton and Royal and the Buckeyes once again shared the ball well, assisting on 14 of 32 made shots, they got a lot of positive contributions across the roster on both ends. Meechie Johnson may have played his best floor game of the year, locking down the perimeter on defense and for much of the night running the point, assisting 4 times and adding 4 rebounds and a steal to his ledger. Additionally, while Aaron Bradshaw is still out, Austin Parks came off the bench and scored 6 points and grabbed 4 rebounds, while playing excellent post defense which contributed to the big advantage the Buckeyes had in the painted area. The Buckeyes were the aggressor from the jump, taking Rutgers out of any rhythm they had early on offense and pushed the tempo at every opportunity. That kind of consistent effort game in and game out is what it’s going to take for Ohio State to reach their ceiling and today was a good start. It doesn’t get any easier with 4 games left in the non conference, two of which are ranked in the Top 10, starting with 2nd ranked Auburn next Saturday afternoon.
The Buckeyes head to Atlanta to play #2 Auburn next Saturday at 1pm for a Holiday Hoopsgiving event featuring a triple header of games headlined by the Buckeyes and Tigers. The game is airing on ESPN2.
– Jason Harris
Photo Credit: The Lantern