Ohio State’s Jake Diebler watches in desperation as the Buckeyes have one slip through their hands…twice. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
For Pitt it was a comeback and a great shot. For Ohio State it was a brutal reminder of games past that got away…in this case, more than once.
Columbus, OH – Pittsburgh’s Zack Austin launched a beautiful shot, arcing high from beyond the 3-point line from the top of the key.
On the unfettered wings of the basketball – in the final second of overtime – rested the outcome of Friday’s matinee.
Austin’s shot hit more than net. It smacked Ohio State in the mouth. It punched the fans in the gut. It made Pittsburgh a 91-90 overtime winner in the stunned-into-silence Schottenstein Center.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
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The Buckeyes (5-2) are left to learn from the ways they could have prevented a loss that they can’t believe they must accept. They will discuss late-game execution, making do-or-die free throws and the importance of focus in win-or-lose situations that led to defeat despite five-point leads late in regulation and overtime.
“It’s a point of emphasis for us daily,” Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said. “The fine details of our execution has to get better, that was clear, and I’m confident in us as a free-throw shooting team.”
First and most obvious, if the Buckeyes had made just one more free throw in regulation or two more free throws in overtime, Austin’s 3-pointer doesn’t exist or, at worst, is only another stat in the boxscore.
In regulation, a Micah Parrish 3-pointer with 2:06 left for a four-point lead and Meechie Johnson’s defensive rebound with 1:37 left seemed like enough. But Johnson made only one free throw and Pitt (7-1) responded.
Austin, in a foreshadowing of the game’s final play, made a 3-pointer with 1:23 left. And Jaland Lowe made a strange-looking shot along the baseline to tie the score with 33 seconds left. The Buckeyes turned to their best player, point guard Bruce Thornton, for the win, but his shot from just outside the lane bounced off the rim.
The Buckeyes made 10 of 14 free throws in overtime, but they needed at least one more for a second overtime and two more to win. From 1:04 to seven seconds left, Devin Royal, Thornton and John Mobley each made a free throw and missed one.
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Still, the Buckeyes led 89-85 with 16 seconds left.
Lowe drove to the basket and got his shot blocked out of bounds by Evan Mahaffey. Then Lowe pump-faked from behind the 3-point line and Mahaffey flew at him. Mahaffey landed and Lowe jumped into him as he shot and missed. But Lowe got the call.
Lowe made three free throws to cut the lead to one.
A long inbounds pass to Royal ended with a quick foul. And for the fourth time in the final 1:04, the result at the line was 1-for-2 to leave room for a winning 3-pointer.
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Lots of thoughts and reasons were discussed for why Austin, who had already made four 3-pointers, was able easily catch and step into his winning shot.
Diebler expected some screening action by the Panthers, so he called for his defense to switch who they were guarding on the screen.
“We pre-switched, and unfortunately, when we switched, we sank too low,” Diebler said of why Auston was open. “Switching is something we work on every day. We didn’t execute it properly in that moment.”
Thornton deemed allowing Austin’s open shot also to be a communication issue and over helping. The defense focused its attention on Lowe, and he was in control enough to find Austin and not force a contested shot.
“Jaland is a really good guard, and that was a really poised play,” Thornton said.
Pitt coach Jeff Capel had Austin throw the inbounds pass, trail the play and maybe be the guy to shoot.
“We felt like that they would have a lot of attention on Jaland on that play, and there was,” Capel said. “We tried to get a high ball screen, just to cause a little bit of confusion, and Jaland pushed it. Everyone was loaded up to him, and Zach was trailing. He was able just to step right into a three. It’s probably the last guy, maybe, they thought that would take the shot in that situation.”
But the perfect storm of things going wrong for the Buckeyes ended with the perfect guy for Pitt taking the shot. The Buckeyes threw long to Royal with four-tenths of a second left, but Austin was in the right spot again for an interception.
From the start, this nonconference matchup changed gears often.
The Buckeyes shot 69% in the first half, but they only led 48-39 because Pitt shot 56%.
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In one stretch, the Buckeyes made eight straight shots to expand their lead from 19-16 to 39-27. Royal scored twice and made two free throws to lead the 20-8 run.
The second half began the same way as the lead grew to 51-39 on Sean Stewart’s three-point play. Stewart’s dunk on an alley-oop play made the score 57-46 with 16:16 left.
Then the Buckeyes went colder than a winter night and committed four of their 11 turnovers, including two uncharacteristic ones by Thornton. Pitt took advantage with a 15-0 run to surge to a 61-57 lead with 10:53 left. The Buckeyes finally scored again with 8:59 left on a Royal free throw.
The Buckeyes responded and appeared headed to victory until it all fell apart.
“We knew they were going to make a run, but we responded well to gain control of the game,” Diebler said. “Certainly disappointed in some of the lapses we had from an execution standpoint. But I think we’re a really good team. We’ve got to learn from this stuff down the stretch. These are easily correctable things. This can serve us really well, if we’re able to respond appropriately.”
The statistical highlights were Thornton’s 24 points, Royal’s 18 and Parrish’s 15. Center Austin Parks played a solid eight minutes off the bench and scored four points against the taller Panthers. The Buckeyes shot 51.7% and made 11 of 20 3-pointers.
Pitt starts a big lineup and has more bigs coming off the bench, including Papa Amadou Kante with a big defensive spark and 12 points. Ishmael Leggett scored 21 points and created problems by getting to the paint in the second half to score and create shots for teammates. And Lowe scored 28 points and Austin 16.
The loss, difficult as it was to accept, will not hurt the team’s vision for the future of the season if Thornton’s leadership has any say.
“We’re going to take this and learn from it,” he said. “We’re not going to pout about it.”
There’s no time for that. Big Ten play begins Wednesday at Maryland.
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