With everything going on outside of the actual basketball game — Senior Day and Bruce Thornton chasing down Dennis Hopson’s all-time scoring record, namely — it was easy to forget that Saturday’s game between Ohio State (20-11, 12-8) and Indiana (18-12, 9-11) also had massive NCAA Tournament implications.
Aided by recent wins over Purdue and Penn State, Ohio State has climbed itself into a position with a bit of security on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Indiana, on the other hand, has been living in the gray
for weeks now, and needed a win in Columbus just to feel like they have a chance to play in the best sporting event in the world in two weeks.
Indiana opened the scoring on Saturday, going ahead 5-0 when John Mobley Jr. fouled Lamar Wilkerson shooting a three-pointer not even two minutes into the game. Wilkerson, an 89% free throw shooter, hit all three to put IU up 5-0.
Ohio State answered immediately, going on a 12-3 run over the next three minutes to pull ahead 12-8. The final play before the first media timeout was Thornton turning around and swiping an inbounds pass from Jasai Miles and dropping it in to put Ohio State up four points.
The Buckeyes opened up their lead to 11-points early, but turnovers and poor shot selection opened the door for the Hoosiers to make it a game again, and they did just that. After Thornton’s three put Ohio State up 28-17, the Hoosiers scored the next eight points, getting it within 28-25 with 7:39 left in the first half. Then Hoosiers were struggling from beyond the arc, but was 8-for-11 on two-point shots over the first 12 minutes of the game. Wilkerson was the first one to get into double digits for either team, scoring 10 points in the first 10 minutes.
Ohio State overwhelmed Indiana over the final 7+ minutes of the first half, outscoring the Hoosiers 22-8 and going into halftime with a 50-33 lead. Thornton’s stepback three-pointer with 44 seconds remaining in the first half gave him 12 on the day and 2,097 for his career, passing Dennis Hopson to become the program’s new all-time leading scorer.
Devin Royal, who only scored two points in the first half, came out and scored four in the first 67 seconds of the second half. That was part of a greater 11-5 run that extended Ohio State’s lead to 61-38 not even four minutes into the second half.
In the span of about four minutes, Indiana cut Ohio State’s 24-point lead down to 15 and pulled the crowd back into it. Reed Bailey’s dunk with 7:53 remaining pulled Indiana back within 73-58 — a large, but not insurmountable lead.
The Buckeyes coasted over the final seven or so minutes, allowing Indiana to flirt with the idea of coming back in the final few minutes, but never coming in any real danger of losing the game. Ohio State did what it needed to do — beat Indiana, stayed on the right side of the bubble, and helped Thornton break the record he’d been chasing all season long. They outlasted the Hoosiers 91-78, which also snapped a five-game losing streak against their western neighbors.
Here are a few moments that felt important during Ohio State’s 12th Big Ten victory of the season:
Mobley fouls Wilkerson shooting three
With Indiana up 2-0 early, Mobley was whistled for a shooting foul as Wilkerson went up for a three. IU’s senior guard and leading scorer hit all three free throws, putting the Hoosiers up 5-0 1:19 into the game.
Bynum steal and slam
With 17:19 remaining in the first half and Ohio State down one point, Indiana’s Nick Dorn tried to hit Wilkerson with a bounce pass that only he could reach, but Bynum reached in and tipped the ball the other way, then chased after it and ran up the floor to throw down a one-handed slam that made it 6-5 Ohio State.
Thornton swipes the inbounds pass and scores
Seconds after Christoph Tilly scored to break a tie put Ohio State up 10-8, Thornton eyeballed Indiana’s inbounder, Jasai Miles, and when he tried to pass it in, Thornton was there. The senior snagged the pass and immediately went up with it for his easiest two points of the day to put the Buckeyes up 12-8, 4:08 into the game.
Enright gets IU back in it
After falling behind by 11 points, IU was able to cut that deficit back to a one-possession game, thanks in part to point guard Connor Enright. After IU’s Reed Bailey missed a layup, Enright swooped in out of nowhere to grab the rebound and pass out to Nick Dorn, who buried a three to make it 28-23.
On IU’s next possession, Enright, who averages 4.4 points per game, attacked the basket and was blocked by Bynum, but it was ruled a goaltend, which got Indiana back within 28-25 with 7:39 left in the first half.
No. 2 sets the record
With Ohio State up 47-32 and 44 seconds remaining in the first half, Thornton — who had just scored 27 seconds earlier — took a jab step towards the three-point line and then stepped back and let it rip from right in front of the Indiana bench. He buried it, putting the Buckeyes up 50-32, but more importantly it gave Thornton 2,097 for his career – passing Dennis Hopson to become Ohio State’s all-time leading scorer.
Since the basket happened right before the half, there was not an announcement by the PA announcer, because Indiana immediately grabbed the ball and tried to score on the final possession of the half.
But once the halftime horn sounded and both teams went into the locker room, Thornton and Jake Diebler came back out of the tunnel and met Hopson at center court for a few pictures and so that Thornton could be properly acknowledged by the sell-out crowd at the Schottenstein Center.
Chatman’s third three pushes the lead to 23
With Ohio State up 63-43 and 12:57 remaining in the game, Chatman knocked down his third three-pointer of the game — his third game this season where he’s hit at least three three-pointers.
Indiana cuts the lead to a more…. manageable (?) 15 points
Once they went up 24 points, the Buckeyes clearly let their foot off the gas pedal a bit, and it resulted in the Hoosiers taking a game that had become a total laugher and making it a bit more reasonable.
After Thornton was fouled by Enright and hit a trio of free throws to push Ohio State’s lead out to 69-45, Indiana went on an 11-2 run that cut the Buckeyes’ lead to 15 points with just under 10 minutes remaining. DeVries, who struggled to connect on the three-ball all afternoon, had five points in a two-minute span.
