Bruce Thornton scored 17 of his game-high 24 points in the second half to carry the Buckeyes. (Press Pros File Photos)
Bruce Thornton carried Ohio State to double-digit second-half leads, but beating Iowa came down to a missed 3-pointer at the buzzer. Next is Michigan at noon Thursday.
Bruce Thornton put on his Captain Buckeye cape once again Thursday afternoon and ruled the Windy City.
And while nothing came easy in the final minutes for the Buckeyes, Thornton’s superhero stretch in the second half was enough. Enough to defeat Iowa 72-69 in the third round of the Big Ten Tournament.
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Thornton scored 13 straight Ohio State points to build a 54-40 lead with 11:43 to play. In all, he made 10 straight shots during that stretch and beyond. He finished with 24 points, 17 in the second half, on 10-of-14 shooting.
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“He was just the ultimate captain,” head coach Jake Diebler said in his postgame interview on the Big Ten Network. “He just found a way. He had some big-time buckets when they were going on a run. We were able to keep them at bay just enough.”
Thornton played in his fourth Big Ten tournament game against Iowa. He’s scored 17, 14, 24 and 24 points and averaged 6.8 assists.
Thornton made more plays down the stretch, finding John Mobley Jr. for an open 3-pointer and making a trademark baseline jumper to push the lead to 66-54. Thornton’s performance came three days after he was named second-team all-Big Ten, a snub in many quarters of Ohio State basketball.
“It’s not me proving to the world, but me proving to myself, how good I can be each and every day,” Thornton said during a postgame interview on Big Ten Network. “And when you’ve got that great support system, all you gotta do is compete and play as hard as you can.”
Next for the No. 8 seed Buckeyes is top-seeded Michigan, a two-time winner over the Buckeyes this season. The Wolverines will be in a lot of people’s Final Four when brackets are filled out next week. The Buckeyes have won their way into the NCAA Tournament with their late-season run.
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“They’re a great team, but we just got to be us, gotta keep fighting, keep playing with each other,” Thornton said. “We’re sharing the ball at a high level. I feel like we’ll take care of business.”
Taking care of business meant a lot of things for the Buckeyes against Iowa. First, it meant overcoming the memory and of their least competitive game this season when they lost 74-57 in Iowa City on February 25. And the Buckeyes did just that to extend their winning streak to four games, a streak that began immediately following the Iowa loss with an upset of then-No. 8 Purdue.
“Every Big 10 game is hard. It doesn’t matter where you’re playing, who you’re playing, tournament, it doesn’t matter. This is the best and deepest league in the country.” – Jake Diebler
That streak put the Buckeyes firmly into the NCAA Tournament. Still, they didn’t want to be one-and-done in Chicago at the United Center. But Iowa tried to make it happen late with some officiating – or lack thereof – on the game’s final play.
Iowa finally played hard in the final five minutes and began to make shots. They rallied from 12 down to cut Ohio State’s lead to 70-69 with 38 seconds left. With about an eight-second differential between the game and shot clocks, the Buckeyes had to try to score.
Thornton got to the rim but the iron was unkind. Amare Bynum tried to tip the miss, but more unkind iron. The next rebound was tipped out to Mobley Jr. He was immediately fouled with 8.8 seconds left. He made both for a three-point lead.
Iowa quickly advanced the ball across halfcourt and called timeout with 7.2 seconds remaining. On the sideline inbounds, the Buckeyes, as expected, took away Iowa sharpshooter and first-team all-Big Ten Bennett Stirtz (17 points). The ball found Isaia Howard on the sideline.
Howard, seemingly expect a foul from Mobley Jr., turned and launched a 3-pointer while falling out of bounds. The shot landed on the top of the backboard and bounced off the shot clock.
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Buckeyes ball with 4.8 seconds left. Christoph Tilly was fouled 3.7 seconds left. He missed the front end of the one-and-one. Iowa got the rebound and Thornton fouled to prevent a 3-point shot.
Iowa’s Alv Folgueiras went to the line with 3.3 seconds left. He missed and the rebound came to Thornton. But Howard knocked Thornton down and knocked the ball from his strong hands. But no one called a foul. So Howard retrieved the ball at the three-point line and launched a three as he turned toward the basket and faded out of bounds.
Christoph Tilly’s 12-first half points led the Buckeyes to a four-point halftime lead.
The shot bounced off the back of the rim, and the Buckeyes had survived and advanced.
“Every Big 10 game is hard,” Diebler said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re playing, who you’re playing, tournament, it doesn’t matter. This is the best and deepest league in the country. We’re blessed to get out of here with a victory, and we gotta get ready.”
Game plan will be crucial. Diebler had one Thursday to make Tilly an X factor in the first half. Iowa sent double teams at Thornton because that plan was highly effective in their previous meeting.
Thornton, with help from Tilly, broke down everything Iowa tried to do on defense in the first half. And Tilly made Iowa pay for the attention it showed to Thornton and Mobley Jr. After Iowa jumped out to a 12-6 lead, shading Ohio State’s guards, Diebler had no other choice than to run offense through Tilly.
Tilly, with help from freshman Amare Bynum, carried the Buckeyes to a 34-30 halftime lead. Tilly made all three of his shots, including an easy dunk on a pick and roll with Thornton. And he made 6 of 8 free throws because everyone in the Big Ten this season thinks they can block his shot every time he goes to the rim. Mostly they just foul him.
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Tilly finished the half with 12 points and Bynum scored eight with two dunks and Jordan-esque move to the basket – one-handed, hanging in the air, then a two-handed finish – to electrify the OSU fans in the United Center. That shot put the Bucks up 21-20.
Amare Bynum combined in the paint with Christoph Tilly and with a pair of dunks to pace the first-half lead.
Iowa regained the lead at 22-21 on free throws, but the Buckeyes responded with second-chance points on a 3-pointer from Gabe Cupps, the Buckeyes only triple of the half.
Iowa responded with a 3-pointer, but Thornton created a three-point play in the paint to take the lead back for good at 27-25. Three Tilly free throws and the aforementioned dunk, followed by a Thornton rim attack with three seconds left, finished the half.
The script of points in the paint completely flipped from the first meeting. Iowa won those numbers 44-18 on their homecourt. Tilly and Bynum led a 22-8 advantage in the first half. And Thornton led the charge to maintain the advantage for a final tally of 36-20.
And it was all just enough.
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