EAST LANSING, Mich. – Two months ago the Buckeyes may not have gotten off the mat after spotting a team like Michigan State an early 12-point lead but this team clawed back after the first Spartans punch to tie it early in the second half but had few answers from a second flurry by the home team and came up short in a 80-69 technical knockout.
CJ Walker and Duane Washington led Ohio State with 14 points while EJ Liddell had 12 points off the bench and Luther Muhammad was the 4th Ohio State player to score in double-figures with 10 points. Andre Wesson had nine points in his final regular season game as a Buckeye but would also foul out with a little more than three minutes left in the game. Kaleb Wesson would have eight points.
Cassius Winston would lead all scorers on his senior day with 27 points on 10-14 shooting. Rocket Watts would have 19 points, Xavier Tillman would have 15 points and Aaron Henry would have 12 points. All but 5 of the points came from the four players who would go on to combine for 27-50 shooting from the field.
Kyle Young missed his fourth game for the Buckeyes in this one. Head coach Chris Holtmann said after the game that Young 100-percent would not have been able to go in this game after the thought arose that the Buckeyes have been holding him back either for the Big Ten Tournament or the NCAA Tournament.
The Buckeyes have been shorthanded for stretches of this season, but Ohio State is also coming out of gauntlet of a Big Ten schedule and that had every much to do with some tired legs as anything for this team.
"It is probably that and you are playing a really good team, on the road and on senior day," Holtmann said. "I thought we had our chances, but we could not get enough stops there when we needed to. Sure, we have won games with a short bench, but I thought we looked a little more fatigued in the half court honestly when they require so much effort to defend them."
All-in-all, there were some moments for the Buckeyes, but just not enough when they mattered the most.
"We had moments where we had some really good fight to us and then I just did not think overall we were able to sustain enough of a defensive effort," Holtmann said. "Give (Michigan State) credit for that."
The Buckeyes would end up drawing to a 44-all tie on an Andre Wesson bucket, but the senior forward would miss the free throw that would have given the Buckeyes their first lead since the opening minutes of the game. After that the Spartans would go on an 11-4 run as part of a larger 36-16 run that would peak with the Spartans leading 80-60.
"They were missing some shots in the 2nd half so we had a chance to cut the lead down and tied it up and maybe take the lead for a minute," Washington said after the game.
The first half was inconsistent at best for the Buckeyes as Chris Holtmann's squad would come out and hold the lead for just about 90 seconds when they opened up as much as a three-point lead in the opening minutes of the game.
Michigan State was the deeper team in terms of rotating 10 players in the first half to Ohio State's seven. The Spartans would open up as much as a 12-point lead on a Xavier Tillman bucket in the paint.
To Ohio State's credit, the Buckeyes would chip away and cut the lead down to four points late in the first half, much on the back of CJ Walker who had 10 points in the first half. The Buckeyes would have a chance to cut into that more but Walker would miss the front end of a one-and-one and give the Spartans a chance to build on their small lead and Tillman would answer once again, this time hitting a fadeaway mid-range jumper at the buzzer to send the Spartans to the locker room up 38-32.
The Buckeyes were fortunate to be that close as the three-point shooting was not there, just going 2-9 from distance in the first 20 minutes. Ohio State was minus-six in the turnover margin, but Michigan State held a 10-point edge in second chance points during the half, more than the six-point scoring margin between the two teams. The Buckeyes strangely enough held a miniscule shooting edge in the first half in terms of percentage, shooting 44.4-percent to Michigan State's 44.1-perecent, but seven more shot attempts would also be a factor as the Buckeyes found themselves in the early hole.
Ohio State would go on to shoot 46.2-percent in the second half, but Michigan State would shoot close to 54-percent as the Buckeyes could not find any footing after that 44-all tie.
"There were a lot of loose balls that we did not get and they got, they hit the floor first," Walker said. "That effects the game in a lot of ways, they get a lot of momentum and get second chance points."
The Buckeyes will have to wait until the completion of the game against Iowa and Illinois to learn when they will play in the Big Ten Tournament. A win by Iowa will give the Buckeyes the No. 6 seed and they will play the final game of Thursday (Nebraska vs. Indiana winner). A win by Illinois will send the Buckeyes to the No. 7 seed and a game against the No. 10 seed in the first game of the evening session on Thursday (versus Purdue).
"It is the postseason, everyone is 0-0, it is life or death at this point, and you have got to give everything that you have," Walker said.
There is no timetable for the return of Young to the lineup, but the team is hopeful that they will be able to get him back at some point with the next game several days off and the NCAA Tournament a week beyond that.
"It would mean a lot, everyone knows what Kyle brings to this team offensively and defensively," Walker said. "His effort is contagious. Everyone is following him when it comes to that effort. It would mean a lot having him back."
