Desperately needing a resume-building win, the Ohio State men’s basketball team welcomed the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines to the Schottenstein Center on Sunday afternoon — hoping to even the score after falling to Michigan in Ann Arbor last month.
In front of the largest crowd of the season, Michigan jumped out to an early 13-8 lead at the first media timeout. Ohio State forced eight misses in the first few minutes, but the Wolverines were mauling Ohio State on glass, pulling down five offensive rebounds
in the first five minutes. The Buckeyes were alive solely because Christoph Tilly scored eight quick points, including two early three-pointers. Michigan extended their lead to 18-11 with 12 minutes remaining, getting baskets from five different players in the process.
Ohio State’s three leading scorers — Bruce Thornton, John Mobley Jr., and Devin Royal, were held scoreless for the first eight minutes of the game.
The Wolverines continues to assault Ohio State on the offensive glass, which not only gave Michigan more shots to score, it also kept the ball out of the Buckeyes’ hands and limited their opportunities to cut into the deficit. An A’mare Bynum dunk cut it to 21-19 with 8:39 remaining, but Yaxel Lendeborg scores five points over next 53 seconds to put Michigan back up 26-18 with just over seven minutes left in the first half.
Michigan’s 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara, who entered today’s game 0-for-4 from three to this point in the season, hit his first and second three-point makes of the year late in the first half, helping give Michigan a 44-34 lead at the half. The Wolverines out-rebounded Ohio State 25-19 in the first half, and had a whopping 12 offensive rebounds over the first 20 minutes.
Michigan came out and quickly pushed its lead to 14 thanks to Mara, who continued to terrorize Ohio State in the second half. Thornton buried a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 11 points with 17 minutes left in the game, but every Ohio State basket felt like a huge task while Michigan was scoring at will once they got the ball within six feet of the basket.
It was an uphill climb for Ohio State early in the second half, hitting 2 of their first 10 shots after the break — both of which came from Thornton. The Wolverines continued to run Ohio State off the line and encourage the Buckeyes to dribble into the paint, where they were met by multiple big men on every possession. Royal scored with 8:01 remaining to cut the deficit to 12, but on the other end Trey McKenney hit a floater and it went right back to 62-48 with 7:41 left in the game.
After getting a stop, Ohio State had a chance to cut the deficit to single digits with the score 64-52, but Taison Chatman slipped and fell near midcourt. As Lendeborg tried to rip the ball from Chatman, the sophomore rolled the ball to Royal, but rolled it on the midline. A backcourt violation was called on Ohio State, and the ball went back to the Wolverines.
Nine seconds later, McKenney buried a three from the opposite corner to push the lead back to 15. Instead of being down nine, Ohio State went down 67-52 with 6:23 remaining. The Buckeyes never really made an effort to get closer than that, ultimately falling to the Wolverines on Sunday afternoon, 82-61.
Three offensive rebounds by Morez Johnson on the same play
Moments after Tilly knocked in his second three-point basket of the game to get Ohio State back within 7-5, Johnson went for a dunk with 14 seconds remaining on the shot clock but was contested at the basket. He grabbed his own miss, and then did that two more times in the next 10 seconds before eventually scoring at the basket. Officially, Johnson was 1-for-4 on that possession shooting, with three offensive rebounds. That put Michigan up 9-5 with 16:42 remaining in the first half.
Thornton scores over Roddy
With Ohio State trailing 18-13, Thornton went from the far left wing and drove to the right side of the basket, with Roddy Gayle, his former teammate, right on his hip. Gayle contested the shot well, but Thornton was able to drop in a big sky hook over top of Gayle with his right hand to make it 18-15 Buckeyes.
Mara hits his first three-pointer of the season
A Devin Royal tip-in off a Tilly miss capped off a mini 5-0 run for Ohio State, pulling the Buckeyes back within 26-24 with 6:38 remaining in the first half. On Michigan’s next possession, Mara, who was 0-for-4 from three tis season coming into the game, stepped into a wide open three-pointer and buried it to put Michigan up 29-24. Mara would go on to hit another three a few minutes later, giving him two makes in the first half after hitting zero of them in Michigan’s first 22 games.
Lendeborg swats Tilly, Johnson brings the house down
Thornton found Tilly with a quick pass with 15:20 remaining and it looked like Tilly was going to have enough space to score, but Lendeborg swooped it out of nowhere and blocked him, and then ran to the corner to collect the loose ball. That turned into a fast break for Michigan, with Morez Johnson bringing the house down on the other end with a massive two-handed slam to put the visiting Wolverines up, 54-39, with 15:09 left in the game.
Chatman trips, leads to back-breaking Michigan three
Ohio State had a chance to cut the lead to single digits with 6:32 remaining, trailing 64-52. Chatman brought the ball up, but slipped at midcourt, falling to the floor and grabbing the ball. Lendeborg ran in to try and rip the ball from him as Chatman rolled the ball to Royal, but the ball touched the midline and it was a backcourt violation on Ohio State.
Nine seconds later, Trey McKenney knocked down a three from the corner. Instead of Ohio State potentially being down 9 or 10, they were down 15 again.
