COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State did not look like the No. 25 team in the country against Maryland.
Instead of playing like a fringe team in the rankings, the Buckeyes played well enough to beat one of the top teams in the country.
No. 25 Ohio State (18-9, 8-8) was able to avoid back-to-back losses by defeating No. 7 Maryland (22-5, 12-4) and its nine-game win streak. Behind big individual performances, 3-points shooting, and a 36-27 rebounding advantage, the Buckeyes were able to add an impressive conference win to their resumé with a 79-72 victory over Maryland.
“It’s always here or there with us,” Kaleb Wesson said on the outside noise. “There’s always people saying we're that good, we're that bad. You’ve got to X that stuff out and go to work every day.”
It was the unusual scoring production from Luther Muhammad that lifted the Buckeyes throughout the game. Muhammad, who had a career-high of four 3-pointers made, was able to knock down four 3-pointers against Maryland. He would finish the game with 22 points, the second-most of his career, to go along with two assists and five rebounds.
“Most definitely,” Muhammad said on having a confidence to shoot. “Just staying with it. Continuing to stay in the gym, work hard, great teammates, great coaches that encourage me and got faith in me.”
With Muhammad bringing an unexpected spark on the offensive end, the rest of the Buckeyes were able to follow. Ohio State would shoot 42.6 percent from the field and hit 10 3-pointers. Five different Buckeyes would score in double digits on the day.
The first half saw no player on either team reaching double-digit scoring, but it did not lack strong offense. The Buckeyes were able to do their damage from behind the arc, knocking down 8-of-16 3-pointers.
The Buckeyes would see five players score at least six points in the first half. The production largely came from the starting lineup, as Duane Washington Jr. was the only Buckeye to score off the bench in the first half.
With Kyle Young going down with a leg injury with 4:29 remaining in the first half, the Buckeyes needed to turn to Washington to start the second half. Young would not return for the rest of the game.
Kaleb Wesson and Andre Wesson would combine for 16 points in the opening 20 minutes. Kaleb Wesson would finish the game with 15 points and nine rebounds, and Andre Wesson would end with 12 points and three rebounds.
Anthony Cowan Jr., who averaged 16.7 points per game coming into the matchup, was held to six points, all of which came from the free throw line, in the first half. Cowan would have all five first half assists for the Terrapins. He would finish the game with 10 points and seven assists before fouling out.
“Lot of it’s on my help defense to be honest,” Muhammad said on slowing down Cowan. “Like I’m guarding him one-on-one, but my help is always there. I know I’ve got help side so I can pressure up and do my whole thing.”
The Buckeyes were able to keep pace with the Terrapins early by knocking down the three-ball. Ohio State would hit three 3-pointers in just over four minutes to open the game, and it was CJ Walker who had it dialed in from downtown, hitting his first two 3-point attempts.
The Buckeyes used five 3-pointers to take grasp of an 18-14 advantage over Maryland with 11:45 remaining in the first half; Ohio State hit only five of its 27 3-point attempts in the meeting with Maryland back on Jan. 7.
With the game knotted at 30-30, Muhammad was able to catch fire from deep, hitting back-to-back threes to lift the Buckeyes to a 36-31 advantage with under two minutes remaining. Muhammad would finish the half shooting 3-of-4 from the 3-point line.
After a back-and-forth first half, Ohio State’s late surge would put them ahead 40-33 at the break.
“We talked about it at halftime,” Chris Holtmann said on the opening stretch of the second half. “This is going to say something about us how we start this second half against one of the best teams in the country.”
Led by the Wesson brothers, Ohio State would storm out of the second half scoring the first seven points to take a 14-point lead.
The Terrapins would cut this lead down to seven points with just under 13 minutes remaining in the game. The game would hang around that spread until Maryland was able to slice into the lead even more when it was reduced to three points with 5:51 left in the game.
Trailing by five with 3:54 remaining in the game, Cowan received a technical for kicking at Kaleb Wesson, an act which Mark Turgeon said was not an attempt to kick Wesson. The technical resulted in two points for Ohio State and the fifth personal foul on Cowan, resulting in his disqualification.
The Buckeye lead was once again cut down to as little as four points, but they were able to hold on down the stretch to get back to .500 in the Big Ten.
Ohio State will hit the road again to take on Nebraska. The Thursday game will tip at 9 p.m. on ESPN 2.
