BAYAMON, Puerto Rico – There was more for Jake Diebler to work with after his team’s second and final exhibition game of the trip.
On August 2, the Ohio State men’s basketball team wasted little time taking care of its Los Boris 1 opponents. The Buckeyesjumped out to a 17-3 lead, held a double-digit advantage for all but about four minutes and generally avoided any real adversity in a 115-75 win at Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez.
The same couldn’t be said one day later against the second iteration of the team, at least for one half. With an August 3 showdown against Los Boris 2 looming as the final on-court milestone before a nearly three-week break for the Buckeyes, Ohio State never trailed and eventually earned a 111-73 win but dealt with some first-half
adversity. The home team pulled even with the Buckeyes three times, the final of which was at 15-all in the final three minutes of the first quarter, and was a last-second Vuk Lazarevic putback from being down five at halftime.
Ohio State then outscored Los Boris 2 by a 64-33 mark in the final 20 minutes to win going away, but those first two quarters gave Diebler plenty to discuss with his team.
“It was what we needed,” he said. “It was great that we had to respond to getting hit. I thought we had a great response. Guys responded well. We’ve now got some film we can reference throughout September.”
As the Buckeyes finish up their exhibition trip August 4 with a sightseeing day on a catamaran tour, here are five takeaways from the win while keeping in mind the level of competition and the time of year.
John Mobley Jr. showed more leadership growth
For the last two years, Bruce Thornton was the final Buckeye to run onto the court when they would emerge from the locker room for the final time during pregame. In both games in Puerto Rico, it was John Mobley Jr. taking those final steps toward the court, and Mobley showed early signs of settling into a primary leadership role for the Buckeyes in his junior season.
Mobley finished with 17 points on 7-for-14 shooting, had four assists and one turnover and also exchanged some words with Los Boris 1 opponent Jared Ruiz during a tense second-quarter sequence that led to a steal and tone-setting slam dunk from Amare Bynum.
“I felt like it was a spark,” teammate Justin Pippen said of Mobley’s back-and-forth with Ruiz. “The whole team was into it at that point. We knew we had to have his back, so him doing that set the tone for the rest of the team and we knew we had to keep playing harder.”
That portion of the game was a demonstration of some of the leadership growth Diebler has been describing during the summer.
“To his credit, his leadership has been phenomenal and it was a big part of today,” he said. “The beauty of basketball is there should be some back and forth. That’s what you want to see."
Depth was again on display
In Ohio State’s first win in Puerto Rico, the Buckeyes reeled off 115 points despite quiet offensive outputs from their two leading returning scorers. In this game, Mobley led Ohio State with 17 points, Amare Bynum added 16 and four other players finished in double figures.
Pippen scored 14 points and dished out five assists. Freshman Anthony Thompson had 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Fifth-year senior Jimmie Williams and freshman LJ Smith each had 10 points. Every Buckeye to play more than four minutes scored at least four points.
“I can tell that our depth is really good,” Bynum said. “Last year we really didn’t have much depth but this year you could tell we’re really deep.”
Amare Bynum continued to distribute the ball at a high level
The sophomore forward leaves Puerto Rico as the team’s assist leader in the two games the Buckeyes played. After dishing out seven in the first game, Bynum had five more against Los Boris 2 while also going 6 for 9 from the floor, grabbing five rebounds and adding two steals and a block in 20:50.
His handle is still a work in progress, but Bynum played with more poise and patience without sacrificing activity or energy when compared to his game against Los Boris 1. After the game, he joked that fans should start calling him “Magic,” a nod to Magic Johnson.
“I was lying, but you see in the games I look like Magic Johnson with five, seven assists,” he said. “It’s just fun. Throwing lobs, handling the ball, getting more players involved is fun.”
Video! #OhioState takes the court to play Los Boris 2 in #puertorico: pic.twitter.com/DGZGRcRE5Y
— Adam Jardy (@AdamJardy) August 3, 2026
Andrija Jelavic improved as the game progressed
As the Buckeyes work to figure out their post player rotation, the 6-foot-11, 240-pound Kentucky transfer figures to impact both the power forward and center spots. He’s impressed during summer exhibitions against former Ohio State players, finishing one scrimmage with 20 points and 12 rebounds, but was relatively quiet with 9 points, five rebounds and three assists in the first win of the trip.
Against Los Boris 2, Jelavic missed two point-blank shots at the rim. One was a finger roll that went the wrong way and the other was a wide-open drive that he simply missed, and Jelavic looked rattled after that second miss. He ultimately finished with 7 points, six rebounds and two assists but looked more confident and aggressive as the game progressed.
His five assists in two games reflected Ohio State’s growing belief that it has bigs who are capable of creating for and finding shooters for open 3-pointers on kickouts from the post.
Josh Ojianwuna again impacted the defensive end
The Baylor transfer who sat out all of last year made his unofficial debut against Los Boris 1, starting and logging 5:40 of playing time that was exclusively limited to the first half. One day later, Ojianwuna was on the floor for 10:47, connecting on both shots he attempted and adding two rebounds, two steals, a block and two turnovers.
He’s still clearly knocking off rust, but Ojianwuna’s playing time was spread across both halves this time. He kept warm at one point by jumping rope near the team bench, and he came out of the games showing no adverse effects from playing on back-to-back days.
Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 5 takeaways from Ohio State's win against Los Boris 2 in Puerto Rico
