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Buckeyes fall to Nebraska, 58-57

COLUMBUS, Ohio — It had been about a half hour, but Thad Matta was still trying to figure out what happened to his team down the stretch against Nebraska on Saturday night.

“I’m like you — dumbfounded,” Matta said in his postgame press conference after Ohio State (15-13, 5-10) let a seven-point lead with 3:37 left become a stinging 58-57 loss.

“I’m still honestly just trying to process everything I just witnessed before my eyes,” he said.

The Buckeyes had a possession with a chance to win, but the play they drew up during the timeout was thwarted by fervent defensive pressure from Nebraska (12-14, 6-8). It forced Jae’Sean Tate to pick up his dribble on the right-side wing, never allowing the junior forward to find senior Marc Loving on a handoff or guard Kam Williams off a down screen. Instead, Tate settled for a desperation heave from near the 3-point line, which clanked off the rim right before the buzzer sounded.

“We beat ourselves tonight, and we deserve it,” said Tate, who led the Buckeyes with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Ohio State led by two points with :21 remaining, but senior guard Tai Webster forced a jump ball on an inbounds pass to give the Cornhuskers the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead. They chose the latter.

Sophomore guard Glenn Watson Jr. drove to the basket, made the layup and was fouled with :11. Watson, who navigated four fouls for much of the second half, hit the free-throw to cap off the three-point play. It was the first time the Cornhuskers had been in the lead since the 16:24 mark of the first half. It came at the right time.

Sophomore forward Jack McVeigh, who finished with 11 points, had hit a jumper with 1:30 left to pull Nebraska, which had trailed by as many as 11 in the second half, within two.

Loving, after a 30-second timeout, turned it over while driving to the rim, giving the Cornhuskers a chance to tie. But they squandered it — momentarily — when Webster traveled. Loving atoned his error, though, by nailing a 3-pointer with 30.6 left to make it a five-point game.

But McVeigh was not to be outdone, answering with a corner 3-pointer to pull Nebraska back within one possession. The Cornhuskers forced the jump ball, which would lead the Watson’s game-winning and-1, on the ensuing inbounds.

"Ultimately, I'm responsible. I have to do a better job," Matta said.

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Ohio State sophomore guard C.J. Jackson (3) dives for a loose ball while Nebraska's Michael Jacobson falls to the ground.
Ohio State sophomore guard C.J. Jackson (3) dives for a loose ball while Nebraska's Michael Jacobson falls to the ground. (Associated Press)

The Buckeyes, who finished with 18 turnovers overall, had four of them in the final 2:32. And so while the foul on Watson or the discombobulated final possession might stick out individually as the most costly mistakes, Tate said the whole was more costly than any one play.

“When you do things like that back-to-back-to-back-to-back, the outcome is going to be very difficult to swallow,” Tate said.

Ohio State led for most of the first half, due in large part to a 5-of-20 shooting start for the Cornhuskers. It had a lead of 11 four separate times in the first half, as well as once early in the second. The Buckeyes had a six-point advantage, 30-24, at the break.

The Cornhuskers, though, persisted through their offensive struggles and began to make plays when they needed to in the second half. Webster finished with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Watson had 14. As a team, they shot just 38 percent.

“Give Nebraska credit,” Matta said. “They never went away.”

“We’ve had resolve all year,” Nebraska head coach Tim Miles said. “We’ve been involved in a lot of these games. We haven’t always finished, which is why our record is what it is.”

They were able to finish on Saturday, though, and deliver the Buckeyes one of their most frustrating losses in a season chock-full of frustration.

Redshirt junior forward Trevor Thompson, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, made that clear in the postgame press conference — but not through what he did or said, rather what he didn't do or say. Thompson’s face remained stoic throughout the more than four minutes he was at the podium, and he uttered just eight words: “Same thing he said,” and later, “I’m not really sure.”

One thing that is for sure following the Buckeyes’ loss Saturday is that they will not finish above .500 in Big Ten play for the first time under Matta’s tutelage. The loss sinks them to 5-10 with three regular-season games remaining. The first comes at home on Thursday vs. No. 11 Wisconsin. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m.

Perhaps by then Matta will have figured out what happened on Saturday.

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