COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As the officials blew their whistles with 5:01 left on the clock as Nittany Lions and Buckeyes basketball players found their places on the hash marks, Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann couldn't turn to senior forward Kyle Young.

Young had fouled out for the first time in his Buckeyes career, but fortunately for Holtmann, Ohio State held on for its 83-79 victory.

Four days later, Young was back against Michigan State and iced the Spartans with a jumper in the game's final two minutes to help the Buckeyes decisively win 79-62.

“Anytime you get a win in the Ten, a win in general, really, is going to feel good," Young said. "Our plan was to come out, set the rules early, be the more aggressive, tougher team. I think we were able to do that offensively and defensively early on."

The Canton, Ohio, native contributed 3-4 shooting and seven rebounds on Sunday as the Buckeyes cruised to their third-straight victory.

Although Young's statistics don't pop off the box score, his mentality is much more: team-first.

“I’m just happy we’re winning, happy my teammates are doing good," Young said. "It’s never really been about the personal glorification or whatever you want to call it. Happy we’re winning. We’ve been playing tough, putting in a lot of hard work.”

Young is no stranger to hard work; he graduated from Ohio State last summer with a degree in sport industry. He's also been named to the Academic All-Big Ten team twice.

Since erupting for a career-high 17 points at Rutgers on Dec. 23, Young has quietly averaged 8.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per-game. In six of his last eight games, the veteran has been good for at least 23 minutes on the court.

Following the win, Holtmann said he doesn’t bother himself with forecasts that others place on the Buckeyes; Big Ten Conference basketball isn’t a place for such labels.

“I don’t really pay much attention to what the expectations would be,” Holtmann said. “This league, you can look and say ‘Wow, that team’s really struggling’ and they’ve lost five-straight, then two weeks later you can say ‘Wow, that’s the hottest team in the league.’"

Holtmann also emphasized the maturity of this season’s squad that contributed to their on-court success and off-court chemistry.

“We’ve got a group that has a really nice blend of older and young guys,” Holtmann said. “I really love coaching this group, so that gives me optimism, hopefully, we can keep getting better."

Young's experience has provided as much value as any over his four seasons at Ohio State.

Sophomore forward E.J. Liddell leads the team in scoring with 15.3 points per game, reaching at least 20 in four of his last five games. Freshman Zed Key has also adjusted to the demands of Big Ten basketball and even notched his first double-double in his fifth-career game on Dec. 13.

Being the leader he is, Young knows the Buckeyes are capable of even more.

“We’ve really been trying to work on post defense, owning the box more, not letting as easy of catches inside," Young said. "I think we’ve improved in that area. We still got to work on being more forceful offensively and defensively and getting what we want."

Young believes the Buckeyes are a tough team, and said setting the rules early in-game is something his team works on.

"You want to be physical throughout the game but you don’t want to foul," Young said. "That’s something I’ve got myself in trouble with the past two games. We just got to play smarter defensively sometimes with that."

Although he's flirted with 3-point shots - having taken 17 attempts and surpassed the total he's made in his previous three seasons with five - at points this season, Young continues to stick to the fundamentals of his craft.

“We all understand what we need to do," said redshirt-senior guard C.J. Walker. "We all know what our roles are on this team, and we do it to the highest level. Whatever you need to do in the minutes you play, just do it at a high level."

Stuffing his stats and topping individual leaderboards aren't on the forefront of Young's mind, and they don't have to be.

When Young's number is called, the Buckeyes are already getting plenty of bang for their buck.

“Hard not to look at those things, but we focus on trying to get better every day," Young said. "Being able to see the hard work pay off is nice, but we got a lot of season left, lot of big games to play.

"We got to keep working and taking it step by step."