Bruce Thornton hit his first six three-point attempts…on his way to a 34-point night. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Ohio State’s first Big 10 loss came down to too many empty possessions and defensive breakdowns when they had chances to seize control. And the result spoiled a 34-point night by Bruce Thornton.
Columbus, OH – Jake Diebler emphatically lacks no confidence in his second Ohio State basketball team. But he has important, season-defining stuff to work on with the heart of the schedule ramping up.
And he knows it.
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First, the Buckeyes must play more consistently. The good flashes offer hope of a better season than last year. The ugly flashes, well, they lead to losses against high-major opponents.
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Second, the Buckeyes must play with more poise. Maybe that’s the first concern. Because poise ought to create consistency. So far, against high majors, the Buckeyes are two for four.
Whichever comes first, the Buckeyes struggled with consistency and poise Tuesday night against No. 13 Illinois, a team that starts two freshmen who played beyond their years and combined for 45 points.
And yet, with a minute left in the game, the Buckeyes trailed by three points on a night when the Illini seemed poised multiple times to blow the game open. Then, as it had at the end of other good runs, everything fell apart for the Buckeyes.
And Illinois, rarely a team that loses its poise under head coach Brad Underwood, responded with a 9-4 run to close out the Buckeyes 88-80 in a foul-filled Big Ten battle at the Schottenstein Center.
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“We didn’t get beat by playing anywhere near our best,” Diebler said. “And for me that’s a real positive. Now we’ve got to play more like our best, so it’s not like trying to sugarcoat it. There’s no moral victory here. That’s just the reality of evaluating the game.”
Devin Royal survived a slow start to finish with 15 points in the Buckeyes loss to Illinois.
The finishing stretch saw the Buckeyes (7-2, 1-1) rally from eight down to trail 79-76 with 1:19 to play. Devin Royal curled into the lane off a screen, Bruce Thornton delivered the pass and Royal turned and scored on one of the best offensive actions of the game.
The Buckeyes had a final hope. They had to keep the Illini (8-2, 1-0) off the free-throw line, contest shots and rebound. But one bounce of the ball on the rim sunk their chances.
Keaton Wagler, one of those poised Illinois freshmen, found 7-foot-2 Zvlonimir Ivisic open on the left wing. Ivisic, a 36.7% 3-point shooter on a team not shy about shooting 3-pointers, let the Illini’s 27th and final 3-point try fly. The shot landed on the front of the rim, looked like a miss, but had enough momentum to fall through for three points and an 82-76 lead with 46 seconds left.
Game over.
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“Big 10 play is ugly at times, and we played ugly at times tonight,” Diebler said. “You’re not going to play perfect in this league. Your composure, your poise, your toughness, have to be at a high level every single possession.”
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A lot of numbers on the stat sheet looked good for the Buckeyes. Bruce Thornton scored 34 points (24 in the first half) to go with six rebounds and six assists, something Dennis Hopson did twice.
Thornton’s first half was as good as it gets. He made his first nine shots before finally missing a 3-point attempt. He made nine of 10 shots in the half and six of seven from 3-point range.
Ohio State outscored Illinois 34-24 in the paint, 13-8 on second-chance points and 12-4 on the fast break. They shot a little better percentage from the field and made nine 3-pointers. But Illinois outrebounded the Buckeyes 37-30, made 11 3-pointers and owned the free-throw line.
The Illini made 29 of 32 compared to the Buckeyes’ 15 of 21. Fans get free Chick-fil-A if the opponent misses at least seven free throws. That was never going to happen. Not when 50% shooter Andrej Stojakovic makes all seven of his and scores 17 points. Then there were the freshmen. Wagler scored 23 points and David Mirkovic scored 22 to go with nine rebounds. Mirkovic came in shooting 29% from the 3-point range and four of five.
The Buckeyes’ consistency and poise issues showed up on both ends.
“We just got to own up to our mistakes,” Thornton said. “We didn’t rebound well, we turned the ball over at crucial times, and we kept fouling and they make free throws. It’s hard to win like that in a Big 10 environment.
Matters of size…Oho State’s John Mobley, Jr. (6’0″) was unable get this shot off against Illinois’ center Tomislav Ivisic (7’2″, 255 lbs).
The defense breakdowns happened when the Illini were able to penetrate defensive gaps to either score in close or pass to open shooters, mostly the latter.
“We had to protect the paint while also limiting the easy catch-and-shoot opportunities,” Diebler said. “And you do that by being up in your gap where you can impact the drive higher up the floor. If it gets too deep, you’re not going to recover in time.”
With Thornton the only hot shooter in the first half, the Buckeyes were bound to play catch up. While he only missed once, the rest of the team made only six of 21 shots to fall behind 48-42.
Still, the Buckeyes turned a seven-point lead into a 34-33 lead on a Thornton 3-pointer. They went from eight down to tied early in the second half. They hung around and hung around in the second half, never trailing by more than eight until a 10-point deficit in the final seconds.
But every time the Buckeyes got close, they failed to follow through.
“There were two stretches where we battle back and tie it or it’s one possession either way, and the following multiple offensive possessions were not good enough,” Diebler said. “We have valued shot quality at an extremely high level as a team this year. And tonight, for whatever reason, we didn’t do that.”
In those moments, the Buckeyes settled for difficult shots and didn’t get the ball inside. In a game with fouls at every turn – 48 of them – attacking the basket made sense.
“We have to play with more poise in those stretches,” Diebler said.
What clearly bothered Thornton more than anything were all the empty possessions and chances to get defensive stops that they didn’t execute and finish.
“We know what we’re capable of doing,” he said. “Even though we play that bad, we’re still in a one-possession game at the end. We do understand what we’ve got to do to clean it up and move on to the next time.”
With, they hope, more consistency and poise.
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