A 47-20 burst over the second half turned a lethargic Ohio State start into a walkover victory against Minnesota that keeps the Buckeyes unbeaten at home this season.
Columbus, OH – It wound up as lopsided as everyone expected, but it certainly took longer than anticipated to get there, which didn’t please Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann at all.
Not the taking-too-long-to-get-there part. The taking-note-of-taking-too-long-to-get-there part.
Wins do, indeed, require effort in the Big Ten and no one wants to slap a return-to-sender label on a 70-45 conquest of Minnesota that kicks off a three-games-in-eight-days gauntlet for the No. 18 Buckeyes.
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But if you thought OSU would emerge from an impressive road win Saturday at Michigan with fire-breathing urgency against the Gophers, you thought wrong.
The Buckeyes committed eight turnovers, had two assists, didn’t attempt a free throw and thus trailed at the break, 25-23, against an opponent that’s 2-9 since Christmas and has won once in Value City Arena in 17 years.
And, if you noticed that and found it curious, you also thought wrong…and let Holtmann tell you why.
“I know people look at it like it was a tale of two halves, but I don’t really look at it like that,” Holtmann said. “Listen, this (Minnesota) team almost…it went down to the last minute at Wisconsin. They played Iowa and they were up four at half.
Tough ‘D’…EJ Liddell challenges the shot attempt of Minnesota’s Sean Sutherlin in the first half.
“You know, people think in this league you should just blow people out, be up 20. I mean, come on now. ‘Have you ever played?’ That doesn’t happen in league play.”
It does, it just doesn’t happen often.
When it does, Minnesota is who it happens against a fair amount.
The Gophers have trailed at halftime in league play by 11 points twice, 15 points once and 16 points on another occasion, but they befuddled OSU for 20 minutes with a spidery zone that at one juncture forced six turnovers in eight possessions and two missed three-pointers on the other trips.
“The first half was one of the worst first halves we played all season,” senior guard Jamari Wheeler said. “We needed a spark to get us going.”
Wheeler supplied it with a three-pointer that started an 8-2 spurt to begin the second half, then Malaki Branham built on that with consecutive three-pointers.
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Branham connected from the left corner off an inbounds pass at 16:08 and bookended that with another triple from the right wing OSU’s next trip.
Wheeler backed on another trey at 14:57 before Minnesota could respond, sending the Buckeyes’ lead to 40-29.
“We dared him to make a couple threes and he banged in a couple threes,” Minnesota coach Ben Johnson said. “We played off of him and wanted to see if he could beat us from three. We wanted to crowd the paint and to his credit, he did.”
Minnesota’s zone made it tough to score in the first half, and the Gophers led by two at halftime.
Minnesota cut the lead to single figures only once thereafter, and never in the final 11 minutes, with Wheeler adding another triple and E.J. Liddell a late pair from the top of the key to push his point total to 16.
OSU shot 57% in the second half and committed only two additional turnovers to improve to 16-6 overall and 9-4 in the Big Ten.
“He’s a really capable shooter with time and space,” Holtmann said of Wheeler, who finished with 13 points after sitting out a chunk of the first half with two personals. “It might take him a minute, but he’s very capable and we want him to shoot those and be ready to shoot them.”
Wheeler’s emergence as a reliable three-point threat would force opponents to abandon the double-teams on Liddell that often feature Wheeler’s man dropping into the post.
The urgency of OSU making opponents pay for that has been heightened by the on-going shooting slump of senior wing Justin Ahrens, who made 1-of-4 last night from long range in eight minutes.
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Ahrens’ playing time has steadily declined during a prolonged downturn in his typically-deadly three-point accuracy. The slump first cost him his starting job, and now is reducing his playing time as both sophomore Gene Brown and senior Cedric Russell continue to improve and offer impact minutes.
“I think Justin will continue to get consistent minutes,” Holtmann said. “He’s in our rotation. He’s not starting, but he’s in our rotation. I don’t see that changing where he’s not in our rotation, because he adds too much value to our team in other ways than just shooting.”
EJ Liddells stops the ball…and the ball handler (Minnesota’s Luke Loewe) in Tuesday’s loss to the Buckeyes.
Russell, who scored 12 at Michigan, added nine in 22 minutes against Minnesota, while Brown played 28 minutes and finished with the second-highest plus-minus of any Buckeye at 21.
“Some of Justin’s minutes have been given to those two guys, for sure,” Holtmann said. “That’s a pretty fluid thing, as well, but both those guys have played really well here lately.”
Ohio State will likely need more of that, and more than 20 good minutes as a team, to defeat visiting Iowa on Saturday. The Hawkeyes enter a Thursday game at Michigan having won three straight, a stretch over which they’ve averaged 93 points per-game.
Sleep-walking through the first 20 minutes against the Hawkeyes likely won’t cut it.
“We were careless with the ball,” Holtmann said. “We were definitely careless with the ball. We addressed it. Careless with the ball and no offensive rebounds are the things we hammered, and I thought we were too stagnant against the zone.
“I’m not saying we played a great half, but sometimes it takes you a little bit of a feel. They played differently this time in terms of how they played their (defense) from the first time. So you go in thinking they’re going play one way, and when they play a different way, you have to make some adjustments at halftime.”
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Malaki Branham's clutch 3-point shooting helped the Buckeyes to a second half spurt that buried the Gophers. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)