In the midst of the 17-0 run…this splash by Dale Bonner to raise the hopes of a frenzied home crowd at the Schott. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
It was as close, but not as consequential, as Ohio State’s College Football Playoff loss to Georgia. But the Buckeyes again came up short against their Southeastern Conference nemesis…this time in a narrow National Invitation Tournament defeat.
Columbus, OH – Ohio State has two National Invitation Tournament championship banners, neither of which hang in a place of honor in the Value City Arena rafters.
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Perhaps that will assuage the disappointment of the Buckeyes not needing to make room for a third after bowing out of the NIT quarterfinals with a 79-77 loss to Georgia on Tuesday night.
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Senior Jamison Battle, playing the last game of his college career in his only season at OSU, came up just short on a game-winning three-point field goal attempt off an inbounds pass with 1.2 seconds remaining.
That ends OSU’s season at 22-15 and steps on the fairy tale finish it hoped to craft from no-longer-interim coach Jake Diebler’s takeover of the program following Chris Holtmann’s firing on Feb. 14.
It also kept Diebler from duplicating the feat of fired OSU coach Eldon Miller, who after his dismissal in 1986 went on to win the NIT.
The electric three-point shooting of Jamison Battle kept the Buckeyes’ hopes alive during a furious second half comeback.
If Ohio State basketball is to be relevant into the future, let’s hope that’s as closely-linked as Diebler and Miller ever are from this point forward.
Battle, who led OSU with 22 points, also missed a three-pointer from the right corner with 26 seconds left and the Buckeyes down, 77-76.
“I’m so proud of the fight our guys showed,” Diebler said. “I thought it was representative of the mentality we’ve had these last five or six weeks. We got hit with some adversity and responded.
“We got hit with some more adversity and responded. We were in position to end it with a victory, but just fell a little bit short. I’m proud of the way our guys fought.”
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Georgia expanded a 36-35 halftime lead to a seemingly-comfortable 51-39 margin with a 15-4 burst to start the second half.
That foreshadowed the plot of the game’s final 20 minutes, with OSU offering an 8-0 response, only to have Georgia counter with a 9-0 run.
Sometimes all it takes is a finger…Devin Royal blocks the shot attempt of Georgia’s RJ Melendez.
The resultant 60-47 margin hovered in that vicinity amid a brief back and forth before OSU seized upon eight consecutive Georgia misfires in a 5:20 scoreless drought.
Battle, Bruce Thornton and Dale Bonner accounted for all the points in a 17-0 Ohio State rally that built a 70-64 margin with 4:46 to play, but Georgia quickly recovered.
Consecutive triples from Blue Cain and Noah Thomasson forged a tie and Dylan James trey from the left wing handed control back to the Bulldogs, 75-74, with 2:21 left.
Thornton, who scored 13 to go with his 10 assists, Euro-stepped his way to a go-ahead layup at 2:02, but missed in close one minute later following an empty Georgia possession.
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That gave the Bulldogs a chance and Thomasson didn’t waste it, drop-stepping away from 6-6 Devin Royal just enough to launch a successful 17-footer with 36 seconds to play.
Battle’s right corner miss set up Cain for two free throws, bumping the Georgia lead to 79-76 with 25 seconds left.
Georgia’s Jalen DeLoach gets to the rim during the Bulldogs’ 15-4 run to start the second half.
Thornton got the Buckeyes one point closer with the first of a one-and-one at 19.1, but Georgia tracked the rebound of the missed back-end free throw. Cain, however, turned it over along the sideline under pressure from Bonner, giving Ohio State 10.1 seconds to plot a game-winning shot.
Thornton tried to land the dagger, but his three from the key clanged off the back iron and out of bounds, off Georgia.
Now with 1.2 seconds left, OSU set up to free Battle for a game-winning attempt.,
“We felt like we had to get Jamison loose to get one off with his size,” Diebler said. “We got a pretty good look. It just was a little short. I feel good about the looks that we had. I thought we executed well.”
Battle lined up on the free throw line, curled toward the basket, then cut hard to the top of the key with center Felix Okpara screening Battle’s defender.
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His three-point attempt was on line, but short…much closer than the three-point field goal OSU needed and didn’t get when Noah Ruggles yakked a 50-yard attempt with three seconds left in Ohio State’s 42-41 loss to Georgia in the 2022 College Football Playoff.
“I’m grateful for the way our guys finished,” Diebler said. “They fought all the way to the end and competed all the way to the end. A lot of teams didn’t even want to compete in this tournament. This says a lot about who they are.”
“I think it was great for our team to get post-season experience. “Most of our team had never played in the post-season. So, that was valuable for us. I think we’ll look back here at some point and say, ‘That served us really well.’ “
An exciting way to end it…7,600 people created an exciting sendoff to the 2023-24 basketball season at Value City Arena.
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