COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State needed to be a different team in the second half against Towson Wednesday night.
To redshirt senior forward Kyle Young, the Buckeyes were lackadaisical in the first half, turning the ball over, not pressing the Tigers defensively like they wanted to, allowing too many easy scores.
To head coach Chris Holtmann it was too finesse, watching as his team got too 3-happy and settled for shots too much in the first 20 minutes.
But really, to Ohio State, it was just normal.
The Buckeyes have held leads of five points or less in four of their first nine games of the 2021-22 season, one of which they lost: a 71-68 buzzer-beater loss to Florida in the Fort Myers Tip-Off tournament championship Nov. 25.
“We were talking about that as a team, coming out slow a little bit and giving teams hope or life that they could come in and play with us,” sophomore forward Zed Key said. “I think we just have to get better as a team coming out from the jump, get on our horses and just keep going. We definitely have to get better at that as a team.”
After a tune-up session in the locker room at half against the Tigers, Ohio State was able to get after it in the second half.
The Buckeyes scored 52 points in the final 20 minutes, the most they have scored in a single half this season. They were connecting from 3: hitting six of 13 tries from deep, including four by senior forward Justin Ahrens.
Even when Ahrens is only a bit open, Key encourages the senior to shoot it, calling him one of the best perimeter shooters in the Big Ten and the entire country.
“It opens up a lot for us,” Key said about Ahrens, who hit a career-best five 3s. “Teams can’t really double when he’s hitting because if they leave him, we’re going to throw it back out and he’s going to hit it. It’s good when he’s shooting and he’s shooting it well, especially tonight. He was hitting everything.”
Ohio State was rebounding the basketball better, bringing in seven offensive rebounds — including three by freshman guard Malaki Branham — compared to Towson’s three in the final 20 minutes. They were getting to the foul line, hitting 18 of 21 attempts from the free-throw line, including a perfect performance by junior E.J. Liddell on six tries.
“I thought we played with more force and energy in the second half, and we needed to,” Holtmann said.
It’s something Ohio State has done all season, continuing to build the chemistry between the younger and more experienced players on the roster, something Young said pressure in late-game situations have helped cultivate.
“It’s just really about building that chemistry, bringing those younger guys along,” Young said. “We’ve had some games early in the season that are really going to help us later in the season because they have been close, down to the wire. We've learned a lot from them.”
But in terms of where Ohio State is at, Holtmann feels his team’s still a work in progress.
To him, it’s not a negative, instead representative of where the majority of teams are at in college basketball. It’s a natural progression, one that Ohio State is still learning to work through.
“You are going to have stretches in games and moments in games where you don’t look your best and you are going to have moments in games where you’ve got to raise your level of play,” Holtmann said. “I thought we did that.”
