It was not as if the Buckeyes did not have chances against Michigan State up in East Lansing (Mich.) on Tuesday night but long scoring droughts and hot shooting from outside from Alvin Ellis were too much for Ohio State (15-12. 5-9) to handle as it came up short to Michigan State (16-10, 8-5) 74-66 to split the season series.
Marc Loving had 22 points for the Buckeyes while JaQuan Lyle had 10 points off the bench after missing the game at Maryland due to a family emergency. No other Buckeye finished in double figures as Thad Matta had to get creative with his bench as the Buckeyes were in foul trouble for much of the game.
Ellis led Michigan State with 18 points, all from beyond the three-point line with six makes (five in the first eight minutes of the first half) while freshman Phenom Miles Bridges had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Nick Ward had 15 points to round out Michigan State's top scorers.
The Buckeyes held the lead midway through the first half and managed to close the gap to three points midway through the second half. But the Buckeyes could not sustain any sort of a run and Michigan State seemed to always have an answer as the Ohio State offense would go into hibernation.
It was not a good night from the floor for Ohio State's big men as Jae'Sean Tate, Trevor Thompson and Micah Potter never really could get a consistent attack going against one of Tom Izzo's smallest teams at Michigan State. Tate and Potter each had seven points while Thompson had six before fouling out in the final minute of the game.
The game was likely decided when Kyle Ahrens (older brother of Ohio State commit Justin Ahrens) nailed a three-pointer at the 3:32 mark to extend the Michigan State lead to 12 points. The Buckeyes would fight to cut it down to seven points on a couple of occasions but there was not much else left in the tank for Ohio State as its was forced to settle for jump shots and came up empty.
Michigan State controlled the pace of the game most of the way and the up-and-down style that Michigan State runs is not conducive to Ohio State's half-court sets. When Michigan State was able to run, the Spartans made the Buckeyes pay with a 20-4 edge on the fastbreak. Ohio State has been miserable on the break all season long and Tuesday night was no different.
Ohio State has four games left in the regular season with three of them taking place at home with games against Nebraska, Wisconsin and Indiana all at Value City Arena with one lone road game left, a trip to Penn State.
The Buckeyes currently sit 12th in the Big Ten and need to win as many games as possible to avoid playing on Wednesday in the Big Ten Tournament at the start of March. Ohio State is back in action on Saturday against the Cornhuskers at 6pm and the game can be seen nationally on Big Ten Network.
