INDIANAPOLIS – The Buckeyes were pushed to the brink by Purdue on Friday and even a little beyond as Ohio State wasted a terrific first half with an anemic second half, only to find the stroke again in overtime and pull out an 87-78 win to advance to the Big Ten semifinals against Michigan.
Ohio State would get six points from Seth Towns and five from Duane Washington in the extra frame as the Buckeyes outscored Purdue 15-6 in the final frame.
Chris Holtmann's team had runs of more than eight and five minutes in the second half without a field goal, all adding up to the Buckeyes losing an 18-point lead over the Boilermakers. Ohio State would shoot close to 56-percent in the first half, only to go ice cold at 23.1-percent in the second half and then bouncing back to hit 5-6 shots in the overtime.
Washington would lead the Buckeyes with 20 points and Kyle Young would score 18 first-half points before a blow to the head early in the second half knocked Young out of the game and has his status for the next game in jeopardy. EJ Liddell would have 17 points before fouling out of the game in overtime.
Purdue was paced by 26 points by Trevion Williams, 18 of them coming in the second half against an undersized Ohio State team. Jaden Ivey would chip in 19 points of his own.
Ohio State has seen game after game where the Buckeyes would see leads evaporate, even on Thursday against Minnesota, that game got a lot tighter than it needed to be as the Gophers cut a 12-point lead to just one over the course of the final 1:40 of the game. The difference there and on Friday is that Ohio State was able to hang on, something that couldn't be said for losses against Michigan, Michigan State and Illinois as part of an Ohio State four-game losing streak. But now the Buckeyes are on a two-game winning streak, if even barely hanging on.
It is about surviving and advancing, but how long will that go on?
"Our players won this game, made plays down the stretch and stayed with it," Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said, picking up his 200th career win on Friday. "I thought we had great execution in overtime. Give our guys credit, Purdue is a phenomenal team, they are tough… I think they are really good. To do this under some unique circumstance and with some unique lineups is a great testament to our players. "
Purdue would chip the Ohio State lead down to a time game at the 47-second mark when Williams made a turnaround jumper in the paint to tie the game up at 70, capping off a then 11-2 run for the Boilermakers. The Buckeyes would get the lead back up to two from the free throw line before Williams would once again tie the game up as he was having his way with the Ohio State defense, tying it at 72-all in the final nine seconds.
The Buckeyes would have a chance to shoot for the win but a turnover and scrum on the floor would end regulation and much of Buckeye Nation lost faith that a win was in the cards.
Escaping the second half may have been the best thing for the Buckeyes, all things considered. Overtime was a very different story with the combo of Towns and Washington stepping up and Purdue going ice cold, only hitting one field goal in overtime and not giving Purdue much to work with as both teams were pushed as far as they could be pushed.
"Seth and I had a conversation last night," Holtmann said. "After we had a chance to spend some one-on-one time together, I just felt really confident that he was going to play really well here. I felt confident in his mindset, where his heads was… I just felt good at where he was at."
For Ohio State fans, the first half was a culmination of everything that the Buckeyes wanted out of this team and saw from Ohio State for much of the first half of the season.
Ohio State would take a 49-31 lead to the halftime locker room, the highest first half output for the team over the course of the entire season. The Buckeyes shot a blistering 55.9-percent from the field in the first half, 47.1-percent from the line and outrebounded the Boilermakers plus-eight.
The story of the first half was play of Young and then Washington and then Young once again. Young would score 11 of Ohio State's first 13 points of the game as he would go a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc in the half.
Washington would heat up in the final minutes of the half, connecting on three three-pointers of his own and scoring 13 first half points of his own before Young would hit a three-pointer with less than five-seconds left, capping off his 18 first-half points.
Ohio State would lead the game for 41:09 of the 45-minutes of two-plus halves, but it really felt like this was a game that was going to get away.
Until it didn't.
Now the Buckeyes look to take on another team that handed Ohio State a loss with the No. 1 seeded Wolverines up next. That game will be on Saturday at 1pm.
