WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A season that saw the Buckeyes overcome some incredible odds came to a sudden and shocking end in the first round on the NCAA Tournament as the No. 15 seeded Oral Roberts Golden Eagles bested an inconsistent Ohio State team in overtime, 75-72.
The Buckeyes had plenty of opportunity in this one but a missed Duane Washington three-pointer as time expired would be the final shot of the year as Ohio State waited until the biggest of stages to play one of its worst games.
Oral Roberts was mostly a two-man show as Kevin Obanor had 30 points and the nation's leading scorer, Max Abmas, would have 29. The Buckeyes were led by 23 points and 14 rebounds from EJ Liddell and 18 points, 10 boards from Washington.
The first indication that it was going to be one of those days was the opening minutes of the game where Oral Roberts got off to a 7-0 start as the Buckeyes were 0-7 from the floor to start things off.
A Washington three-pointer would get things started as Ohio State would go off on its own 10-0 run to take an early lead and alleviate a lot of Buckeye nerves with the sharp-shooting Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts seemingly in check.
The Washington vs. Abmas battle would be a draw in the early moments as each player would score the majority of the opening points, Washington would run off a quick 11 points.
But as we have seen, the Buckeyes are prone to some lulls, and Friday was no different as Ohio State would go 1-9 from the floor and turn the ball in uncharacteristic was as ORU would run out to a seven-point first-half lead, 34-27, erasing a one-time eight point Buckeye lead.
"They were not guarding some guys and we had some careless turnovers," Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said. "They were not guarding a couple of our guys and really crowding things and making driving lanes and post-ups difficult. And we missed some open looks that we have made. I think that combined with just a couple of our sloppy turnovers contributed to a poor offensive half."
The second half was much like the first, except the Buckeyes would only lead momentarily while the Golden Eagles would hold as much as a seven-point lead about eight minutes into the half.
Ohio State would turn to Liddell and his 12 second half points to try and stay in the game, but a lack of an outside shot and a lack of free throws would lead to Ohio State's undoing. Ohio State was just 9-18 from the free throw line, including misses on the front-end of one-and-ones and uncharacteristic double misses in crunch time.
The outside shot was not much better as Ohio State was just 5-23 from beyond the arc.
"I felt like they beat us to too much stuff, we had some self-inflicted turnovers, I thought our guys have had a great readiness to play all year," Holtmann said. "For whatever reason, our being slow to lose balls, I will put that on me. I don't think we had the necessary juice there early, for whatever reasons."
Even with all of that, the Buckeyes had a shot at the end of regulation to win things. Ohio State held a four-point lead down the stretch after Liddell split free throws but Obanor would go to the line and cut the margin to two with a pair of makes, ORU was 14-18 from the line on the day. Ohio State would have Washington drive to the rack but come up empty, Liddell would get the board and was fouled by Abmas. Liddell would miss the front end there and Ohio State would hold on to a thin lead.
Obanor would convert on two more free throws to tie it at 64-all but the Buckeyes would have a final look and Washington would settle for a stepback jumper instead of taking it to the rim and the two teams would head to an extra period to decide things.
Overtime would be more of the same for Ohio State, going 3-9 from the floor, 1-5 from beyond the arc and 1-3 from the line. Even with all of that, a clutch Liddell three-pointer would give the Buckeyes a final look but even with a good look on the last shot, it just was not meant to be.
They made some big time plays in the second half and overtime and we didn't," CJ Walker said. "We did not take advantage of turnovers and missed shots in transition and things that we usually do to take advantage of. It hurts, it is my last time putting on Ohio State jersey, playing in this moment, so it hurts a lot but I'm not going to let this define me or the Ohio State program or the future that comes."
This is the first time the Buckeyes have not advanced to at least the second round since 2014 when Ohio State would fall to Dayton in the first round 60-59.
