TULSA, Okla. – Few people gave the Buckeyes a chance to get past Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament but it did not matter in the end as Chris Holtmann's team led for 32 of the 40 minutes as the No. 11 seeded Buckeyes advance to the round of 32 over No. 6 seed Iowa State, 62-59.
Kaleb Wesson and Keyshawn Woods would carry the Buckeyes in a nip-and-tuck game that rarely saw the Buckeyes get out to much of a lead as Iowa State would stay within hailing distance.
Ultimately, it came down to a five-point run by Woods after the Cyclones took a 54-53 lead with 3:37 to go in the game and a big steal by Musa Jallow that would steal momentum from the Big 12 Tournament Champions and put it back in Ohio State's hands.
Woods would need to do it again however with 18 seconds left in the game after a Lindell Wigginton three-pointer would cut the lead back to one-point, 60-59. Woods would go to the line with the season on the line and would calmly nail two free throws to put the lead back up to three points.
"(I have dreamt of hitting game winning free throws like that) since I was a little kid, that is a dream that everyone thinks about," Woods said. "Everyone wants to ice a game and have it on your back and be the man to seal the deal."
Wesson would lead the Buckeyes with 21 points and 12 rebounds while Woods would have 19 points and Jallow would have 11. The rest of the team would combine for 11 points as it was a lopsided scoring game.
Iowa State would be led by Marial Shayok's game-high 23 points.
Holtmann's game plan would have the Buckeyes finding Wesson early and often in the post. Iowa State did not have the size or strength down low to match up with him and at points were being eaten alive by the bigger and more powerful Buckeyes.
"Just win the next possession," Wesson said. "Win the next play and win the next second."
The Buckeyes are now a perfect 7-0 against Iowa State all-time and while this did not a have a near buzzer-beater like the 2013 game did off of the hands of Aaron Craft, there was no less satisfaction for this group of Buckeyes to advance in a big game, especially as an underdog.
"Our guys stepped up and made so many key plays against an Iowa State team that had a terrific season," Holtmann said. "So, to beat them as well as they were playing is a great credit to our guys, and we know we have another tremendous challenge here in short turnaround, but we're excited to be a part of this thing."
There would not be much of a chance for Ohio State to win a game that was running in the 80's or 90's against a high-powered Iowa State team and the Buckeyes knew that they would need to slow things down and rely upon defense to keep this game close. Iowa State's 59 points is a low-water mark on offense since a mid-January loss to Kansas State, 58-57.
"(Our defensive effort) is as good as it has been all year," Holtmann added. "I told our guys (on selection Sunday) that if we were going to win the game that we would need to have our most complete and best defensive effort of the year. I think it was our best."
Ohio State went against its trend for most of the season and opened up with a quick lead after missing its first couple of shots. Woods would hit a three-pointer to extend Ohio State's early lead and the Buckeyes would get it up to 11-2 after a Kaleb Wesson bucket in the low block.
Even with that early success, the Buckeyes were not going to be able to keep the Cyclones down for the entire half and after the Buckeyes went up by nine points, the Cyclones would go on a 15-2 run, fueled largely by Shayok's shooting to take a 17-13 lead after a Tyrese Haliburton runout off of an Ohio State turnover.
It would have been easy or not unexpected to see Ohio State let that four-point deficit swell into something much larger but to the credit of the Buckeyes, that did not happen as the Bucks came back immediately to take a 20-19 lead off of a Duane Washington three-pointer.
Neither team was impressive from the field as Ohio State shot 35.7-percent but the Ohio State defense along with cold shooting held the Cyclones in worse shape as Iowa State shot 29.6-percent.
The Buckeyes would open the lead to six down the stretch in the first half but would not score a point in the final 3:18 of the half. Even with Ohio State's edge from the floor, the Buckeyes only took a two-point lead to the halftime locker room, 26-24. But at that point it had to be considered at least a partial win as Kaleb Wesson had to sit for close to nine minutes in the first half as he picked up two fouls.
In the second half, the Buckeyes would get the lead back up to a high of seven points after an Andre Wesson dunk made it 49-42 but the Cyclones were not going to give up. They ran off a 6-0 run of their own largely on the hot shooting of Shayok to get the game back to one-point.
The Cyclones would keep it a one-possession game until they finally broke through on a Shayok jumper to take a one-point lead. It would be the last lead that Iowa State would have however as the Buckeyes just continued to find answers.
Woods would get a roller to fall to retake a 55-54 lead and then follow that up with a clutch three-pointer, one of three makes on the night. Ohio State would only make five as a team and Woods had three of them.
The Buckeyes were good but not great from the line, going 11-14 and that would create some tense moments late. After Woods put the Buckeyes up 62-59, the Cyclones would miss the front end of a one-and-on with Shayok, usually a steady free throw shooter at better than 88-percent. Kaleb Wesson would then go to the line with a chance to make it a two-possession game and would miss the front end of his one-and-one try.
Iowa State would have one more shot at it as Nick Weiler-Babb's three-pointer would not go down and the Buckeyes would corral the rebound and throw the ball down the court as time expired.
In a strange twist of fate, Weiler-Babb's older brother Chris Babb was part of the 2013 Iowa State team that fell to Ohio State in Dayton (Ohio) in the NCAA Tournament.
It was a good two-day run for the Big Ten in the tournament as the league went 7-1 in its first eight games with only Wisconsin losing its first-round game. The Buckeyes will draw an even more difficult assignment on Sunday when it has to face off with the No. 3 seeded Houston Cougars, winners of more than 30 games this season and a team that easily dispatched of Georgia State 84-55 in the game before the Ohio State game.
That game is schedule to tip around 8:40pm (EDT) on Sunday night on TNT.
