COLUMBUS, Ohio — Chris Holtmann didn’t want his team to focus on being down 13 with 11:39 to go in the game. He didn’t want Ohio State to think about being down seven with four minutes to go.

Instead, it was possession-by-possession basketball, the individual moments, the ones that grow teams.

“There’s a tough-mindedness that teams, if they don’t have it they better get it,” Holtmann said. “They better grow it and build it. If you are not tough minded, you can’t do these things.”

It was a moment Cedric Russell was ready for.

The redshirt senior transfer guard from Louisiana was one of the players Duke forward Wendell Moore Jr. called “wild card guys:” those players outside of E.J. Liddell that can make a difference in a game, the product of what he felt was a very deep Buckeyes team.

Russell’s path wasn’t clean. Nor was the path he saw when he was put in a position to change the game, taking a pass from Liddell in the corner he didn’t grab all the way, admitting he was behind it. But the veteran knew he had time to take a beat, adjust the ball in his grasp and try for a shot, fulfilling the promise he made to the junior forward in the huddle before the play.

“If you need it, I’m here for you,” Russell said.

That 3 made the possibility, a pipe dream, a reality, bringing the Buckeyes to within two points of the No. 1 team in the country, using free throws and one last fadeaway jumper by Liddell to seal the unthinkable.

In that final 12-point run up until the buzzer, Russell was in the middle of it all, recording six of the final 12 points, bringing in a key rebound that set up Liddell for the final shot.

To Holtmann, it was simply a look in his eye, an aggressive look, one wanting to show up like he used to at Louisiana, averaging 17.2 points in his final season before transferring

“If you aren’t playing and things aren’t going well, if you get into your feelings, you’re only hurting yourself. You are only stunting your own growth and your own development,” Holtmann said. “If you live in your feelings — I’m not playing as much, I’m not doing this, Coach didn’t play me here, I’m missing shots — if you live in your feelings, you are only hiring yourself.

“I think he has shown in the last week-and-a-half, two weeks, the ability to just kind of come to work every day.”

It’s a transition that’s been hard for the redshirt senior.

Everything is new.

It’s the first time the Alexandria, La. native’s been away from home, all of his surroundings are different, bigger than they were with the Ragin Cajuns.

To Russell, it’s a process, one that didn’t end with the 3 against Duke.

“Nothing happens overnight, so really just being able to stick it out through the good times, the bad times, the highs and the lows,” Russell said. “Continue to come to work every day with the mindset to get better.”

But it’s a process that turned into a season-high 12 points on three 3-pointers and three free throws with three rebounds.

To Holtmann, this was the game plan for Ohio State.

No matter the score, each possession is an opportunity to put in work, to get better, to stick it out through the good times, the bad times, the highs and the lows.

It’s resiliency, the head coach said. Bottom line.

“Our ability to be resilient, to keep trying to win the next possession was very important and in the end, our players just made enough plays,” Holtmann said. “I was really proud of their resiliency.”

It’s a resiliency that turned into a defense that wore Duke out, according to head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

It’s a resiliency that’s created a true brotherhood within the Ohio State locker room, cultivated more fully by games decided in the final moments against Akron, Seton Hall, Florida and the Blue Devils.

“We’re all here for each other and we love each other like brothers,” sophomore forward Zed Key said. “It shows how close we are.”

It’s a resiliency Holtmann knows he will need later on. He knows the dramatic games, the close games are far from over.

Holtmann knows Ohio State will continue to have games where it goes down to the wire. In those times, he said, the Buckeyes will have to be able to have the mindset it did against Duke, the mindset that Russell had when he had to adjust the ball in his hands for that corner 3.

Ohio State will have to be able to win that next possession.

“I was ready for it,” Russell said with a shrug, already focused on the next task at hand.