Physical interior play leads the way for Ohio State in ugly victory

On a day when the Ohio State offense was stagnant and lacking any inspiration, the brute force of its big men was enough to pull together a win.

Freshman Zed Key, sophomore E.J. Liddell, and senior Kyle Young were crucial in the paint in Ohio State’s second game of the season.

All together, the group of interior threats combined for 25 points and 10 free throw attempts. Their work was necessary; the Buckeyes shot very poorly from every area of the court.

As a team, Ohio State outscored UMass-Lowell 30-18 in the paint and forced its way through a staunch zone defense from the River Hawks, winning the battle on the boards by 10.

“I do think we have to be intentional about attacking the paint, and we tried to attack their zone by driving it and posting it. So that was good to see,” Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said. “We didn’t always convert on as many free throws as we’d like, but it was good to see us get to the line.”

Ohio State missed its first 11 shots from deep and entered halftime tied with a low-major UMass-Lowell team. 29 of the Buckeyes’ 33 first half points came in the paint or from free throws.

Outside shots weren’t falling, turnovers came in bunches, and the offense lacked any flow throughout the game. Nothing seemed to go right for more than a few minutes at a time on the offensive end.

“I don’t think we attacked the zone really well,” Holtmann said. “Thought it slowed us down. I did not think our patience attacking it was very good. We’ve obviously gotta work on it, it’s our first time seeing almost 35 minutes of zone.”

The second half proved not much different-- Ohio State only connected on four three-pointers in the game and relied on free throw shooting and physical dominance in the paint to eke out a victory.

It was Liddell who got Ohio State going early in this game. The sophomore scored four of his team’s first six points and grabbed a number of tough rebounds in traffic, battling through foul trouble throughout to finish with 11 points and 8 rebounds.

“E.J.’s always been a great post player, it was just last year, we had a lot of really good players that played in front of him,” senior point guard C.J. Walker said. “It’s his role to kinda step up more this year and be more confident in himself.”

There was a concerted effort to play through Liddell in a tight game late. He was one of few consistent options against the River Hawk zone on Sunday afternoon, bullying his way inside and creating opportunities for the offense.

Young, Liddell’s starting frontcourt partner, struggled finishing around the basket but provided his normal rebounding energy on both sides of the court, ending up with eight boards in the contest.

The real surprise through two games, however, has been the physical play and maturity of Key, a 6-foot-8 freshman forward from New York.

“Before the season even started, I told a lot of people that Zed Key was gonna be big for us this season,” Walker said. “Him on the inside, being able to rebound offensively and defensively, he helps us a lot with KY and E.J. giving a lot, playing a lot of minutes and doing what they have to do.”

The young big man finished with eight points and four rebounds on Sunday. He provides an interior presence Holtmann and company desperately needed entering this season and altered many UMass-Lowell shots near the basket while providing a big body in the paint early in this game.

“Offensively, he finished under the rim,” Walker said of Key’s performance on Sunday. “Got some great defensive rebounds that we needed when we got stops. He just brings a lot of attention under the basket.”

Ohio State hit shots when it needed to most. It knocked down free throws, rebounded very well on both sides of the court, and played through some severe offensive woes to grind out a victory.

Every rebound was necessary in this game. Every free throw proved important to the final score. Every altered Lowell shot was critical.

When the outside shots start falling for Ohio State, its tough group of big men will only become more impactful.

Against UMass-Lowell, however, Ohio State needed everything it received on the interior.